What Won't Stay Buried
by Verthril
Summary: After the events of Alcatraz Island Ororo finds herself confronting the legacy of the late Charles Xavier as a man she never really knew. With Logan at her side, the school will face challenges of its own with a new push for Mutant Registration finding its new champion with his own past. RoLo, Bobby/Rogue, First Class inspiration now too (since fox avows they're all cannon).
1. Chapter 1

Marvel owns the X-men, no profit is to be made by this work.

Moving his calloused hands across her oiled flesh, he found her shoulders and worked h is thumbs into her neck kneading away the stress that built up there like the laden clouds ready to unleash a torrent. The incense burning brought him back to another time just as hazy as the smoke, a moments deja vu teasing him only to deny him as he chased it. Sliding down her back with his fingers trailing down her sides, he found the swell of her hips and rested his hands there with his thumbs teasing her. Laying on the blankets of her bed with her eyes closed lost to his ministrations, she looked as radiant as ever.

"Rough day at the office?"

She just nodded her head in answer, running the school and teaching never an easy task. They had both taken to doing what they did best, and as for him it wasn't very nice at all. Field leader of the X-men, after San Francisco and Alcatraz Island there was a renewed interest in the push for Registration. It seemed they were right back to square one as he slowly and deliberately moved his hands up her spine.

"Ya can turn over anytime."

He felt her quiet chuckle as she laughed, laying her head on its side to stare up at him with her blue eyes that could turn as white as the ivory clouds she held command over. She looked tired and he couldn't blame her, they were all tired these days. Reaching a hand to brush her cheek and stroke her jaw, she relaxed at his touch and closed her eyes.

"So I guess I'm sleepin' in my own bed tonight, eh?"

"Yes, I have to be up early tomorrow."

And if this late night massage went the way he wanted they'd both be waking up late, sore and tired from a sensual night of all the right kind of fun for the right kind of reasons at the wrong moment. It had all started one night alone in her office, what had once been the Professors Office, polishing off a bottle of scotch in that man's honour after finding it down in a desk drawer hidden behind some files. In the morning they blamed it on the whiskey from the Isle of Scotland, only for it to happen again as they toiled away one late evening doing all the routine maintenance to the Blackbird.

"Secret meetings and all that kind o' stuff?"

She just nodded, ever since the Professor had been killed it had been up to the photogenic and angelic young Warren Worthington the Third to take up the torch for the fight for mutant rights in Washington. At his side was the UN Ambassador, the famed Doctor McCoy, but behind the scenes the rather unknown Ororo Munroe helped to make sure all the kids at the school would have a future to look forward to. The silent partner so to speak.

"I sometimes do wonder if you have it far easier."

Laying down atop her and finding the crook of her shoulder, he felt the beat of her heart against his chest and entwined his hands with hers. They might not be able to sleep together tonight in either sense of the word, but for now she was his and he'd lay with her reveling in her majesty. Every breath he took had the magic of a storm about to break with an energy that filled him never knowing the torrent to be unleashed.

"Trainin' up the next generation o' X-men, startin' ta feel sorry for all the trouble I gave Slim."

Other than him and Ro the only other full fledged X-men around were Drake and Piotr, Bobby and Petey. Kitty was still a Junior on a fast track while as much as it pained him Rogue, or Marie, had been bumped to auxiliary. She still trained with them but as far as field missions went she was unfortunately only called when the shit hit the fan, and he'd be damned if it'd ever get that far.

"I trust you Logan."

Few people had ever said that let alone even put their faith in him, but ever since finding his way to the school he'd found out trust was both a thing given and earned. Kissing her along her neck he swore he was going to make damned sure he both earned hers to make sure she wasn't just giving it away. The first of the candles burnt low with the flame dying, an aroma of smoky wax filling the air as it snuffed itself out. His time wasn't long, the massage she had accepted to work away the stress of her day already treading long past his hopes. Maybe once all her business was over with he'd have another go, get to show her again just the animal he could be.

"Night Darlin'."

Rolling beneath him until their breasts were pressed against another, she embraced him and left him breathless. He kept telling himself that it was just a couple of close friends that needed that sort of thing to keep them even, but as the kiss broke and he looked into her eyes he felt they both might have been lying to themselves all this time and that maybe there was something more to it than they ever dreamed. Climbing from her bed and snuffing out the last of the candles, he left the incense to burn low and leave her bathed in lilac and jasmine as she fell to the depths of slumber.

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Author's Note : Well, I had the intention of it being a oneshot but now I think I just wanna use this as the stepping stone of a rewrite of another story I scrapped. Reviews are always welcome, and I hope you enjoy :)


	2. Chapter 2

Marvel owns the X-men, no profit is to be made by this work.

There were places he'd go in the hours between days, places that all had their own rhyme or reason. The Danger Room when he had to let the read bleed from his eyes just so he could see again and not fear popping his claws, the garage when he wanted a smoke and just tinker on a bike or fix an engine. Sometimes he'd head on down to sit with Jones and catch a late night movie marathon when he just needed the kind of companionship of someone who didn't say much, but tonight he was sitting down in the kitchen nursing a Blue and whittling at a piece of wood with a serviceable pocket knife he'd found once in a toolbox.

"Whatcha making?"

He'd heard her walk from the foyer and caught her own unique perfume, wondering just what she was still doing up at such a late hour but figured she'd tell him in her own time. Glancing down to the piece of tree branch he had picked up doing some yard work, he just shrugged and went back at it.

"Figure it'll tell me what it wants ta be in its own time."

He'd heard the same from Pete enough times, that boy sketching away in charcoal about as often as he saw him down in the gym. The answer seemed to satisfy her as she walked on into the kitchen still dressed from her date with Bobby, it was still taking him a while getting used to seeing her throwing off years of habitual layers. Dressed in just a T and jeans, her usually pale skin had been tanned by the summer sun with long days spent outdoors flaunting shorts and a bikini he secretly disapproved of.

"Practice still in the morning?"

Rummaging the cupboards for some cereal, a trip to the fridge found her the milk for her late night snack.

"Just before class."

She was leaning against the counter munching away with the carton handy for a sip. Notching at a knot that wanted to be an eye, the blade slipped and bit his flesh painting the wood red. Wiping his hands clean on his worn old jeans, he started to carve out the red stain wondering if that was what he was doing now at the school, finding a way to wash the blood from his hands.

"Logan?"

Something about her voice had him looking up from his whittling, setting the wood down and folding the blade away before putting it away. She was keeping her eyes to her bowl, a warning sign for sure. Leaning back in his chair and waiting, he caught the reflection of Bobby walking by cast in the reflection of the leaded glass cabinets of the kitchen. He gave a hopeful wave to her, but the set of his shoulders hinted at something that had her in the kitchen eating cereal instead of at his door in an endless game of goodnights shared between them with both wanting to be the one who bid the last one.

"What is it Rogue?"

Marie was something else he was getting used to, but something about her right now had her looking like her namesake so he went with it. Wondering if it was some trouble in paradise, nothing about Drake showed the kind of worry the boy could muster when something was weighing on him. Pushing back on his chair and climbing to his feet, he walked up and took the carton of milk to drain it in one thirsty gulp only to toss it right into the trash. He'd worry about the kids giving him shit about recycling tomorrow, right now he had other things on his mind as he leaned beside her against the counter.

"Teach me to fight."

Looking down at her with an arched eyebrow, he saw the kind of determination in her eyes that told him she wouldn't be swayed. It was a look he was getting used to seeing around the school, like when Drake was stepping up to plate or when Petey had been pushed too far. Kitty never lacked it, always out to get her point across no matter what it took, but Rogue was looking to tell him it was her way or the highway.

"Thought I was already doin' that."

Sure enough he was teaching them all how to operate as a team, getting them all to bring out the best in each other, but they all brought something to the table in the way of their own little gifts as one man had called them. All but Rogue, cured of her curse leaving her just a young woman trying to find a way to fit in at a school full of mutants. Not to say everyone had stayed after everything that had gone down, some parents coming to get their kids while a few of the older ones had headed off to have a go at as normal a life as they could. But most stayed because they had nowhere else to go, just like Rogue.

"I want you to teach me to fight like you used to."

King of the Cage, they'd met one another at some shit hole of a bar out in the arse end of Canada as she tired to make her way to Alaska. He'd made his livelihood back then beating up any who came to challenge him, the matches all rigged without any proof of cheating until someone pulled a shotgun on him and he'd popped his claws. Healing factor and unbreakable bones, most forgot that it still hurt every time. It was just part of the package of being the best, something he put to good use these days.

"It won't be easy."

As her hand found his with her fingers slipping in the places between his knuckles where his claws sliced free of his flesh, there had been a time when she had popped her own born of bone early in their friendship. Most of the kids had their reasons for joining the Juniors with the hopes of becoming X-men, burdens and guilt that drove them to put their lives and limb on the line. But for some it just came down to wanting to prove they always had what it took, cured or not.

"See you in the morning Sugah."

Standing there alone in the kitchen, he listened and envisioned her walking on down through the student dorms well past where the girls and her room were. There was that one squeaky board he just hadn't gotten to fixing yet, counting out the steps until he heard a light knock at a door. The sound of someone shifting on the bed in a hurry met his sharpened senses, the door opening quietly yet still not quietly enough. Sighing heavily and ignoring the rest, soon enough all he heard was the usual ambiance of the school that had become his home.

"See ya in the morning kiddo."

Finishing off his beer and putting the bottle with the rest, he found his piece of wood and pocket knife and figured that was enough for one night. It'd stopped talking to him, maybe in the morning he'd find out just what it wanted to be.

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	3. Chapter 3

Marvel owns the X-men, no profit is to be made from this work.

"How was your flight?"

Free of the confines of the private jet that had awaited her at the small airport, Ororo offered Hank an understanding smile at his concern. While nowhere near as bad as she had once been, her claustrophobia still haunted her time and again. Relenting her bags, she gave him a hug and noticed the rather large truck he had.

"Tight, but it seems that will not be a problem for our drive."

"Compliments of the younger Worthington, something from his fleet. I made the mistake of complaining about how troublesome it was finding a suitable car what with my rather unique physique outside of a gorilla population."

Placing a hand upon his shoulder that had him pause from his trek about the truck, she looked at him until his eyes fell low with a humourless chuckle. Hiding his hurt behind some self deprecating humour, she knew just how sensitive he was about his image. She had her own hurt to try and hide watching one of the kindest and most endearing people she knew still suffering after all this time. His hand found hers and gently took it, an honest smile finding him as he looked to her.

"I can never feel sorry for myself when you are around, you never let me even as we met."

"I only saw a charming boy who needed to be reminded how beautiful he was."

"A beast in the company of a real beauty, we should be careful lest the tabloids spread rumours of two old friends in some tryst when from what I hear m'lady is enamoured with another."

She had forgotten the splash the good Doctor McCoy had made after the dust had settled, an internet star with a following growing by the day. His habit of singing showtunes in his remarkable and eloquent timbre as he worked had lead to a few candid videos that had wound up going viral. It had been Kitty who had shown her them, and she placed the spreading gossip of her and Logan squarely on that girls shoulders. They weren't even dating, they were just...enjoying one another's company in so many delightful ways.

"I should not have much to worry about in that case, the man in question takes to teenage girls gossiping as nails on a chalkboard."

Around the school she usually knew when he'd had enough, often finding him out chopping wood or doing other yard work if only to have an excuse to get away from it all. Of course Rogue and Kitty had clued in soon enough, going out to 'lend a hand' as it were and chatter about Hollywood's who's who.

"Well, I suppose you are lucky then. We should be off, Warren is waiting."

A branch office of Worthington Labs had opened up shortly after the need to have a private place to meet found itself in their book of tricks. Hotels were too scandalous and everything else just seemed rather cloak and dagger. So it was after a merger with another company that the signs were changed and they had their private retreat away from prying eyes to best talk about how to counter the newest wave of anti-mutant hysteria drummed up by rabblerousers with axes to grind and their own private agendas.

"You don't mind if I sing do you?"

Smiling and shaking her head, it wasn't long before Hank started to sing along to the classic rock playing on the radio as he travailed the traffic. Pulling out her laptop and doing what she had promised to on the flight in, she started to catch up on all the paperwork that seemed endless having inherited the title of Headmistress with the passing of her mentor. Always thinking it would have been Scott or Jean, the fates had been cruel indeed. Living true to herself, she stood by her promise to make sure there was always a safe place when someone needed it.

Sorting through her emails, there were the usual businesslike ones from all the people who unwittingly helped a school meant for mutants, even more from those who had been longtime allies of the late Charles Francis Xavier offering their support or just a few words of solace. Spotting one from Kitty, she was greeted with just the words 'Open Me' and an attachment, the picture within leaving her breathless. A candid photo of Logan enjoying the warm weather vacuuming the pool in nothing but a tight fitting pair of denim cuttoffs and a cowboy hat. Losing her focus on business, her mind wandered off towards plans to be out there poolside the next time he was playing a gruff and rugged pool boy.

Shutting her laptop and heaving a sigh, there was no way she would get any work done now. Easing her seat back, she enjoyed the rendition of 'Under Pressure' as sung by the blue furred genius next to her.

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"Any reason yer takin' pictures o' me cleanin' the pool?"

Grinning even as she typed furiously on her phone to send the picture, Kitty looked up from her phone and threw a wink. Shrugging, he went back to cleaning the pool as he wiped the sweat from his brow against his forearm. It was one of those oddly relaxing chores that gave him time to think, sorting out all the cobwebs and chasing down those moments of deja vu and such. Soon as this was all done he had a date with a few laps, a couple of brews from his beer fridge in the garage, and then hunting down a certain boy to find out just what had Marie all in a bother to learning the nasty things it took to win a fight.

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	4. Chapter 4

Marvel owns the X-men, no profit is to be made by this work.

Ushered through by staff accustomed to dealing with the extraordinary and astounding, the elevator was a mix of modern and old with an open cage of wrought iron but no attendant to call the floors. Wondering if it had been among the many little gestures the younger Worthington so enjoyed throwing around, he was quickly earning himself a name as a philanthropist first class steeping in to help charitable works around the world benefiting everyone. Ororo smiled at the thought, thinking he and Charles might well have made wonderful friends if only given the chance.

"I should warn you of the lady whom you are about to meet." Hank broached as they got off the lift.

"Henry, there are precious few in the world who haven't heard of Emma Frost. Despite her antics so lavishly reported in the tabloids she seems entirely reasonable." Ororo said in a placating tone with a soft hint of laughter.

"I wasn't aware you read tabloids Ororo, do wonders never cease." Henry laughed.

"From time to time one finds themselves bored awaiting an appointment or standing in a check out with only them to read." Ororo lied, a secret vice of hers the gossip of celebrities and other people of note.

Hank strode up to the doors and gallantly held one with a bow as she walked past, what was once apparently an office of the former CEO Emma Frost now serving as their private refuge from the general public. She could see Warren's touches everywhere already, from his taste in furniture to the screens that mutely played the news hunting for where best his family fortune could help ease his penitent soul.

"Warren." Ororo greeted as she walked up to the current CEO of Worthington Labs.

"Ororo." Warren greeted.

A demure cough brought their attention to the lady languishing on a settee, the infamous (and much adored by the paparazzi) Emma Frost. A lady of means, she had taken her families wealth and built a business empire from it. With always a man on her arm to events, the rumours started to spread as the flings hardly seemed to last little more than weeks or a handful of months at best.

"Miss Frost." Ororo greeted with a hand held out.

"Mistress Munroe, a pleasure." Emma replied.

Few in the world could make a pantsuit look as seductive as her, the matching riding crop bringing a bit of her curiosity forth. Emma simply smiled and picked it up as she rose from her seat, lightly tapping it against her outstretched palm.

"It helps to keep their attention where it should be, but as a Mistress you should know this." Emma teased.

"Headmistress." Ororo corrected.

"Dear, the thought of a beautiful woman such as yourself as the Headmistress to a school of young, malleable youths is a fantasy come true." Emma purred, a tilt of her head having her enjoy a glance of the younger Worthington who coughed feeling himself under her intense interest.

"I assure you Miss Frost, I have only their best interests at heart and the longing to fulfill a debt owed to a great man." Ororo said with a kind smile.

"Then that is something we have in common Mistress Munroe, as I am a lady who pays her debts." Emma smiled beatifically, having a playful swat with her crop to urge on Warren.

"I apologise, but as Emma, beg pardon Miss Frost said she is one who pays her debts. As we are well aware the Estate of the Late Charles Francis Xavier is an ongoing matter. It has been brought to our attention that in the event of his death that Miss Frost would be invited to join the faculty with an emphasis on those students in need of guidance in their telepathy." Warren announced as if reading from the very will itself.

To say Charles had his secrets was a moot point, her friend and confidant the late Jean Grey a point hammered home with a coffin nail. Blinking her surprise, Ororo looked to Emma for explanation as the lady only smiled all the more sublime taking envious pleasure from the turn of events.

'_You didn't really believe I built my empire without a few tricks up my sleeve did you darling?_' Emma asked as a voice for her alone that echoed within the confines of her mind, Ororo realizing that they were all in good company then.

"You are a telepath?" Ororo asked the obvious.

"As my teacher himself said, I might well be his only rival. But then again Charles was known to be a horrid flatterer, and to a nine year old girl it was enough to fill my head with dreams." Emma revealed.

"We could certainly use the help at the school Miss Frost, but are you not needed..." Ororo began.

"Hence the point of the merger my dear, I trust dear Warren will not make me regret it. We can iron out the details later, over lunch perhaps? I believe we have more pressing matters to attend to." Emma promised after cutting in.

"Regretfully so, but perhaps we should entertain brunch if not lunch for now? I don't believe anything I have to report would leave any of us with an appetite." Henry said darkly.

Never one to lead any astray, Ororo trusted Henry's guidance and gave a nod. It would be nice to enjoy a cup of tea and get to know the enigmatic Emma Frost if they were to be working together, and perhaps warn her of another she would be working with soon enough. Logan she found was an acquired taste, doubting the elegant woman might be ready to entertain his blunt and brisk manner. Then again if she knew just what he could do with his hands, well, she might forgive his failings as she herself had.

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"Think fast!"

Icing up moments before the wrench struck him square in the head, Bobby looked to the toolbox where sure enough Logan stood holding a bigger wrench this time. That's what he got for trying to educate the man in modern day movies.

"If you can dodge a wrench you can dodge a ball?" Bobby asked.

"Dodge this." Logan said a moment before hurling the wrench all the while quoting another movie from his education.

"Can we just skip to the part where I tell you how I fucked up?" Bobby asked taking another wrench this time to the chest.

"So you admit yer the reason why Marie wants ta learn the nasty business o' bein' the best at what she does?" Logan asked.

Hearing the drawer of the tool chest slam shut, Bobby figured it was safe and let his frosty armour melt away. Taking his face in his hands and sighing, it shouldn't have surprised him that she'd have gone to him to have a word.

"I might have told her...she should have taken Jubilee up on her offer and go to College in California." Bobby sighed.

"Jubi Who?" Logan asked.

"Sort of a friend of a friend. I think her and Kitty were Rogue's first roomies when you two first showed up. After the whole cure thing, well she offered Rogue a chance to uh, come with." Bobby explained.

Bobby bit his tongue thinking of the real reason why that one girl was getting as far away from the school as possible, her experience with Stryker nothing to laugh at. That she had stayed this long was a miracle, but from that friend who was friends with her he had heard it was her parents pressuring her to finish up to graduation. Then Alcatraz happened.

"What's in California?" Logan asked, walking off to his beer fridge and unlocking the padlock.

"Well, besides her rich parents, a mansion and sun, sand and surf...the Professor left most of us with full rides. I kept telling Rogue she should maybe...think about it." Bobby said with a heavy sigh.

"By think about it ya meant give up puttin' herself in danger?" Logan asked, a knowing look in his eyes.

Bobby nodded and found his way over to a pile of tires to take a seat. He still couldn't understand her, she'd gotten everything she had always wanted. She was a normal girl again, she could kiss and cuddle and...other stuff. Not that he had, but if she wanted to and ready he was sure as heck going to be the perfect gentleman about it. He just wanted her to have the life she deserved, even if it meant she'd be on the other side of the freaking continent. He promised he'd fight enough for the both of them, and that was when she had slugged him and stalked back off to the car.

"I fucked up didn't I?" Bobby asked to Logan who was walking back with a beer in one hand and one of those fancy sodas in the other.

"I'll give ya this kid, yer heart was in the right place. Too bad ya got rocks for brains." Logan said passing off the soda.

Trying to twist it open, Logan held a bottle opener in hand with a smirk. Prying the cap off and raising his bottle, the two toasted to the age old tradition of men screwing up only to have to win back the trust and respect of the ladies they loved.


	5. Chapter 5

Marvel owns the X-men, no profit is to be made by this work.

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"Senator Graydon Creed has been using the resurgent issue of Mutant Registration to garner public favour and opinion. Though the current administration of course favours building bridges between human and mutant communities, public opinion after the San Francisco event has been growing heated." Henry said with the start of his briefing.

"An opportunistic jackal, clever enough to surround himself with the right sort of people filling them with sweet words and praise, only to reap what they sow. Is it any wonder he finally found his calling as a politician?" Emma sniffed.

"He has been a recent rival of my father, poaching some of our best with head hunters always out looking for fresh talent. Busy too, his company is in biotech, engineering and mining. I hate to admit it but I can almost admire his drive, I have so much to learn. If it wasn't for the board helping me with this school of hard knocks, well, and of course Emma." Warren said tiredly, the boy king still coming to terms with his responsibilities.

"Come now Warren, we've known another too long for the need of thanks. As for that insufferable Creed's drive, admire it yes but not the man. I'll have Marcy, actually she works for you now. Why don't you just appoint her your personal assistant and fill you in on all she knows about this bastard Creed." Emma said with a fond laugh, still coming to terms with passing off the reigns of her company.

Ororo looked between the two having heard the rumours of a tryst between the senior living Worthington and Emma herself who for a time had played nanny to the youngest Warren after his mother had passed on. While maybe not a tryst, surely there was a history between the men of the Worthington name and Emma herself, a small smile creeping as she thought of all the wonderful gossip she might be able to find out first hand finally. It was better than any of those trashy romance novels she so enjoyed as a guilty pleasure.

"My apologies, but may we return to the briefing?" Henry asked with a look to the two.

"Sorry Hank." Warren chuckled with a hint of his embarrassment shading his cheeks.

"Not only is he pushing for registration, he goes so far as to call for the so-called Cure being 'administered' which of course he means forced on any who don't comply should the bill be passed." Hank added gravely.

"Impossible, my father saw to it that the Cure was destroyed. He's gone so far as to move Jimmy out of the country, even I don't know where he is!" Warren gasped at the absurdity of it as he saw it.

"There are still all the men and women who worked on it, and of course those all who took it willing or otherwise." Henry sighed.

"Those like Rogue or Erik." Ororo noted speaking for the first time this meeting.

"And of course all the others, all it would take would be watching any of the news footage of all those clinics and a bit of Hardy Boy detective work to find subjects, willing...or otherwise." Henry noted.

Ororo could feel the friendly atmosphere drain from the room at the thought of such a future, realizing just how dangerous this Graydon Creed was. Looking at the picture of the man that sat upon the ridiculously large television, with the look in his eyes and the smile set on his lips she found nothing likeable about the man.

"How do we fight such a man..." Ororo wondered aloud.

"Darling, just the same way you twist any man to your will. Find out his drives, his wants, his dirty pleasures and his secrets. Oh, this is going to be fun." Emma said with a laugh that sent chills down many.

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"What're ya wearin'?" Logan asked over the laptop.

The meeting had been everything she feared it would be with only the introduction of Emma and the knowledge she would be joining the school as a high point. The hotel suite Warren put her up in was lavish to say the least, the cast iron tub filling as she walked about lighting candles and burning incense. After the day she had she longed for nothing more than a long soak with a bit of company, having to make due as it was with a little bit of long distance fun.

"Absolutely...nothing." Ororo said in a slow breathy voice, smiling at the sound of his throaty growl.

Pouring a glass of champagne and setting it down in front of the laptop, she turned the knobs shut tight and then so very slowly sank into the steaming water dotted with flower petals for a nice little touch. From the looks of things Logan was hold up in her office, likely enjoying her lingering scent and all her little touches to bring them just that bit closer. Cracking a match and lighting a cigar, she let it burn in an ashtray as a different kind of incense filling the room with that smoky aroma she hated and loved all at the same time.

"Fer a second there I thought ya picked up my bad habit." Logan chuckled.

With a hint of mischief in her eyes she picked it up and pressed it to her lips and let it burn there, puffing away to blow smoke rings earning another throaty growl from her amore. She could just imagine what Emma would likely say of her little act, wholly phallic and utterly enjoyable seeing just how riled up Logan looked.

"Stop grading papers, I know you tend to give out easy A's when you're...distracted." Ororo cooed playfully.

"Someone's gotta do it." Logan snorted, the stack beside him just as tall as the one opposite.

Resting the cigar in the ashtray and having a sip of her champagne, Ororo had to admit he was right in that regard. They even had the Junior X-men teaching the youngest classes just to help out right now, but as welcome as Emma was it was only a start to rebuilding the school that had nearly been destroyed if not physically but in spirit. She still couldn't bring herself to move the wheelchair from where it sat vacant.

"You'll be happen to know we're having a new addition to the school." Ororo let slip.

"Guess that explains the movers that showed up here earlier." Logan chuckled though he kept his eyes on her as he graded another paper between glances.

"Movers?" Ororo asked shocked, she hadn't been told anything about movers at brunch only that Emma had a few things sent ahead.

"Damn near a truck alone for a bunch o' boxes that looked ta be tagged nothin' but this and that kind o' clothes. What sort o' prima donna we got shackin' up?" Logan asked as he leaned back in her chair to look at another test.

"Goodness, does it help that she was picked out by Charles himself?" Ororo asked, twisting in the tub to lean against the edge with just enough of herself to tease him.

"Well, find out if the late, great Chuck had any more up his sleeve. We got exams comin' up ta finish off the year. Summer break isn't that long either, it'll be September before we know it Ro." Logan said all the more serious, a drawer opened to reveal a new bottle of that same Scotch they had enjoyed that first night.

"I shall see what I can do Logan, cheers." Ororo said raising her glass to see him raise the bottle, her finishing her flute while he took a swig.

"Sweet dreams babe." Logan said softly.

"Do sleep well Logan." Ororo returned.

The screen went blank as the connection was closed, twisting to lie beneath the steamy water and hope it could soothe the ache earned from all the pressure thrust upon her shoulders. Logan wasn't wrong, they needed help and soon and Emma was albeit a welcome surprise but only a start. The world was turning on them again and that would mean more would need a safe port to weather the storm she had no power over.

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	6. Chapter 6

Marvel own's the X-men, no profit is to be made by this work.

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The shower was just the thing to sooth the aches and pains from her tortured flesh, sliding down the tiles until she was sitting lotus under the spray with two worlds of sensations washing over her, the scalding hot spray and the chill tiles at her back. Opening wide and letting the water wash in, she rinsed and spat crimson stained filth to wash down the drain with all her aches and pains. Prying her one eyelid open, the world was a blurry mess and she let it fall shut and hoped it didn't look as bad as it felt.

"Rogue?" Kitty called from their shared bathroom door.

There was a time being naked even in the shower would have had her on edge, now she still had to remind herself that it was okay and all she had to worry about was her own modesty. Sighing, a locked door meant little to the girl on the other side of it so at least she wouldn't have to get up.

"C'mon in Kitty." Marie called.

"Whoa, you look like crap." Kitty said after ghosting into the bathroom to find her roommate in the shower stall.

"Well I feel like shit." Marie countered.

"Learning much?" Kitty asked chewing on her bottom lip.

"How ta fall flat on my ass. Sonovabee was lyin' when he said he wouldn't take it easy on me." Marie growled, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath.

"Wait, what? If that's easy I don't wanna see him mad." Kitty gasped.

"First time I ever saw him fight, swear ta god he broke a man's arm just punchin' him back. That's all without his claws." Marie recalled still lost to the warmth of the spray and the darkness behind her eyes.

"Shit..." Kitty whispered at the thought.

"I wonder if Bobby ain't right, if I shouldn't just pack my bags again..." Marie mused.

Naked as she was she felt arms pull her tight and hold her in a way that had been denied her so long, the feel of another persons cheek against hers and the warmth of their hands holding her shoulders. Crying and hoping to hide it in the spray, she threw her arms about Kitty and hugged her dear and hard facing something she hadn't wanted to admit ever since taking the Cure, the truth that she felt different now that she couldn't do anything.

"No ones right and no ones wrong Rogue, so much has happened and the damn dust is still settling. You just gotta do what's good for you, and if that means getting your ass kicked by Logan or going to school, well...you decide." Kitty assured with a light bonk from her head.

"What if I don't know what's good?" Marie asked between shaky breaths.

"Well, for one you don't go hopping on the next train." Kitty laughed thinking of how Marie had first turned up at the school.

"Don't remind me Kitty." Marie groaned at the memory.

"And for two, you just realize that we'll always be here just like Miss Munroe promised. Always a place for people who need it. Now if you'll excuse me I need to go get changed." Kitty said, a kiss to her friends hair as the embrace broke.

Rogue sat in the shower and watched her ghost off leaving her wet clothes behind to go get changed in their shared room. Of the former Juniors only Pete and Bobby had graduated and earned their own rooms off in the teachers wing, the way Kitty was going Marie knew it wouldn't be long until she had that option too. Touching her tender eye and knowing she'd be sporting a real shiner, she wasn't ready to give up just yet.

"I can't believe I'm sayin' this but I think I gotta watch some damn UFC with Tabitha." Marie sighed, needing inspiration in the world of fighting and fast if she was going to prove Bobby wrong.

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Grading papers, Logan first noticed the chill in the room by an itch in his nose and the fogging of his breath. Glancing up and noticing the door had frosted over he waited knowing just who it was, a fist slamming through seconds later to shatter the wood as a fuming Bobby Drake stalked in iced up and looking ready for a fight.

The fact that it was once the Professors office had him a little put out, but the fact that he could remember being slammed against that very door by a incensed Ororo having her way with him, well that just had him willing to oblige.

"Give me one second ta just put this stuff..." Logan started.

Knowing a new trick when he saw it, ice shot out of Drake's fists and slammed into the desk splintering it and scattering the papers. Rubbing his eyes and wishing he had time to take it down to the Danger Room, Drake didn't look like he was listening to much reason.

"We can either do this the easy..." Logan tried only for a blast of ice to slam against his chest and knock the wind out of him.

"Hard way it is." Logan answered with a cough.

Gripping his chair in one hand and flinging it at Bobby, he took the bait and raised a shield of ice at the attack. It was the opening he needed, closing on the boy and popping his claws with a snickt. Two poised on either side of the kids face with one in reserve, he met the icy gaze of the Iceman and breathed hard watching his breath fog this close to him.

"Unless ya want me ta make a popsicle outta ya, I suggest ya simmer down kid so we can talk about what's got ya riled up..." Logan threatened, his eyes unblinking as Bobby fell to that game of chicken.

The moment the icy armour melted like the mornings frost Logan had him by the hair and dragged him off to the garage past the onlookers. Throwing open the garage door and pushing him in, he closed it behind them and walked off to the fridge for a beer and a couple bottles of water. Pounding back his beer and arming up little Jack Frost himself, Logan was ready for round two away from prying eyes.

"Now you just gotta ask yerself one question, do ya feel lucky? Well, do ya? Punk?" Logan barked as he nearly nailed the famous line.

"Dirty Harry..." Bobby said quietly with a forced bit of humour.

"Didn't take no snot nosed brat ta have me know about them movies. Somethin' ta be said for the classics." Logan snorted as he crossed his arms and leaned against the wall.

"Tabitha's getting the girls together for a UFC marathon in her room." Bobby said as if it said it all.

It took him a second to realize just what the kid was talking about, when he did he just had to curse and was glad there wasn't a swear jar around as he'd owe it at least twenty bucks. To say he hadn't pulled punches was a complicated sort of matter, when your knuckles were laced with a crazy bit of metal that made you damned near unbreakable you had to know how to handle yourself.

All the same he'd given her every chance to beat the living crap outta him and sure enough she'd fought dirty, it just wasn't dirty enough for when not only yours but other lives were on the line. Walking up to Drake and offering a hand, Logan was glad when the boy took it so he could help him back to his feet and give one of those 'I'm hugging you but smacking you around at the same time so it's manly' sort of hugs.

"Between you and me kid, I think we're in for a world of hurt." Logan admitted.

"At least you heal." Bobby answered with a smirk.

Smacking him lightly against the head, as much as he hated the idea of boys sniffing around the closest thing he had to family Logan had to admit Drake wasn't so bad if he'd just clue in a bit. As much as the ladies wanted the good guy they still longed for the bad boy, it was just that other side of the coin that he chased himself. Looking for a girl pure and sweet with just the right kind of naughty side to her, hell if he didn't find it in a lady who could shake and bake him and light him up with bolt out of the blue.

"I'll give ya that Drake, I'll give you that." Logan conceded, wondering just how folks made it through the day.

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"Between you and me Ro I'm glad I can't remember shit about bein' some moody broody kid." Logan complained with a pause just long enough to enjoy his beer.

"Just which of our 'moody brood kids' are to blame?" Ororo asked with a light laugh.

"Yer just lucky I can't pinch ya." Logan laughed.

His laugh was something hoarse and coarse but still brought a tickle to her belly and a thrill up her spine. Another day spent learning about the now infamous Graydon Creed had her in need of that. What she really needed was one of those secret rendevous in one of those secret places they knew to make love with nothing but his body crashing against hers and the allure of the forest breathed in with every breath taken.

"Rogue and Robert?" Ororo asked as a moot point.

"No, Kitty and Petey, of course Mar...Rogue and Drake." Logan growled back with a slip.

Ororo had to laugh at the tough guy facade he wore, granted worn so very well but it was a poor disguise to just how deep he really was. She'd even caught him meditating time to time but he never wanted to talk about it as it would probably run his 'rep' as the kids called it.

"How is she?" Ororo asked having dreaded the question.

"Black eye, buncha aches and a whole lot o' wounded pride that has her figuring out a whole slew o' her own brand of dirty tricks to try. She's still thinkin' wrong, she's still thinkin'..." Logan explained only to sigh with a heavy breath and swig his beer.

"That the world his fair and plays by the rules, even if she should know better by now." Ororo supplied.

"I'm damn ready ta give 'er a sword and tell her ta gut me, when the shit hits the fan and it comes down to you or the other guy...well, more'n enough o' Stryker's boys learned that lesson the hard way." Logan admitted.

More than ever Ororo wished she could be there with him now, she knew just how heavy his guilt was that he carried. The men he had killed who had attacked the school weren't the issue as she understood it, it was that he had so easily dispatched them with the kids watching that had him feeling guilty to this day even if he still played at being the bad boy she knew him and Scott had more in common either had the chance to admit.

"You think she should take Jubilation up on her offer?" Ororo asked.

"Jubi...yer fucking shitting me? Who names their kid that?" Logan asked loudly forgetting his earlier mood.

"Who names their child Apple?" Ororo countered with a bit of old celebrity gossip.

"Ya know what Ro, maybe Erik wasn't so far off. Maybe we are the next step and right about now we should outlaw stupid names fer kids who'll only get bullied their whole lives." Logan said more seriously with just a hint of farce.

"Goodness Logan, already talking about children are you?" Ororo teased.

"Before I hang up on ya Ro I'm sayin' a little something and givin' you a chance o' rebuttal. Love ya babe, get yer butt home soon." Logan said with a chuckle.

"I miss you too Logan, and I shall be coming home as soon as time permits given the turn of events. Please be sure to have Miss Frost's room ready when we arrive." Ororo said softly thinking about all the briefings from Henry she had yet to endure.

"Make sure in yer future hirin' policy that ya stipulate folks can't be movin' the fuckin' Taj Mahal in." Logan groused.

"It surely could not have been that bad." Ororo laughed.

"Oh really? Well lucky fer you ya can help her unpack, as I got all her boxes stacked up ta the ceiling fer her. Sweet dreams babe." Logan snickered.

"Pleasant dreams Logan." Ororo said, a click on the other end his answer.

He had to be exaggerating Ororo thought as she rose from her seat out in the hall, there was no way anyone could have that much clothes. Taking a deep breath and finding her centre, she was ready for another briefing from Hank and looking forward to dinner with Emma once it was all over. Just not quite as much as what she really longed to do, forgetting for if only a night that there was an entire faction that viewed them to be exterminated or enslaved for the good of Humanity.

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	7. Chapter 7

Marvel owns the X-men, no profit is to be made by this work.

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"Here."

Looking up with her good eye and wondering how he had found her hiding down in the green house, she had watched all of an hour of the UFC marathon with Tabitha before she had to quit having seen more than enough blood for her liking. Taking the offered peas, they were still freshly frozen as she put them over her eye.

"I heard somewhere steaks were good for black eyes but Logan threatened to gut me so I found some peas in the freezer. Now that I think of it, it sounds like a bad pun. Black eye peas..." Bobby said as he milled about before her.

It did sound like a bad pun and a near perfect fit, Bobby was always good for finding the humour in a situation. It was also another in the long line of sweet little gestures he was always doing, from stealing kisses back when she could kill with too long of a touch to chasing after her as she stood in line to be cured. He always had found a way to make her laugh and smile, it was most likely the reason his suggestion had hurt so much to hear.

"Does it look that bad?" Marie asked, feeling her lip split again.

"You know when they say you should see the other guy? Your other guy would be hamburger if you won." Bobby said with a nervous laugh.

Nodding, fact was she was the other guy and she felt like it. She thought she could do it but fact was while she could likely hold her own in a barroom brawl, the people she would be up against wouldn't just be drunks one too many in. They'd be mutants or militants out to kill her and her friends. Hanging her head low at the truth of it all, maybe she had just been too stubborn to realize it until she had her ass handed to her by her best friend.

"Ya really think I should go?" Marie asked without looking up.

"It's...not about thinking you should go Rogue, it's, I just want what's best for you even if that means we're going to have a whole lot of America between us." Bobby admitted.

"Ya could always ask Miss Munroe ta borrow the Blackbird on weekends." Marie managed with a laugh.

"I don't think I could promise to bring it back on a full tank though." Bobby chuckled.

"I could always stay local?" Marie posed.

"And give up a mansion in Beverly Hills?" Bobby questioned sounding incredulous.

"I got a mansion right here, full o' friends, and one idjit boy I can't quit." Marie smiled, licking her split lip as her eyes watered.

Seeing a flicker of something she wasn't used to seeing in Bobby's eyes she made room on the bench and patted it. Sitting with her, this time it was his turn to hang his head as he ran his hands through his hair. Leaning against him feeling everything was now forgiven, she slid his fingers along his until they parted to entwine together.

"I wasn't the only one she asked?" Marie questioned with his shake of his head her answer.

"Everybody else already said no didn't they?" Marie asked, this time a nod given.

"They're all too scared, it's happening all over again and at least all of us together with the X-men around...we can feel safe." Bobby admitted after having talked to the few others who sadly had to decline.

"But I'm..." Marie whispered, unable to say that word that took on a new meaning now, normal.

"You're Rogue, always will be. No one can change that about you." Bobby said as he looked up to meet her troubled eyes.

But she had been changed for better or worse, and while no one at the school treated her any different there were differences. She received those friendly hugs now that she had envied for so long, had people dragging her off without a worry. And leaning in as she was now she fearlessly kissed the boy who had helped her overcome so much in her life just like a certain Canadian, both always treating her as just another girl.

"Just remember mister, I get a might jealous so you watch yerself." Marie threatened as the kiss broke.

"Does that mean no ice skating?" Bobby teased.

Punching him hard enough in the arm to surely leave a bruise, he surprised her by jumping to his feet with his own dukes up. Never one to back down from a fight in her life she was on her feet and ready for a playful bout that didn't have need of a winner or a loser, just another way to make light of her hotheaded ways that had her hellbent for leather to prove 'em all wrong.

Unseen by either as he lingered at the door, Logan stood there with a steak on a plate and a couple of sodas in hand. Smirking at the sight of the two having a bare knuckle bout of their own, he looked down to the steak and gave a shrug.

"No sense lettin' it go ta waste." Logan mumbled as he headed off to fire up the grill.

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"I must confess I do not have much of an appetite after those briefings Emma." Ororo said after being seated and handed the menu.

"Wonderful, otherwise you'd starve dining here. While exquisite and delectable, these so called chefs have forgotten their calling and plate art more than a meal." Emma whispered lowly as if sharing a forbidden secret.

Finding herself able to smile at the remark towards the establishment, Ororo looked to the menu which read more like some of the poetry she had graded from her students than anything espousing anything of the meal. Settling on the same as Emma, at least the cocktail menu was something she could understand. Not that she was a luddite to fine dining by any means, but a look around showed people making a farce of dining on what might pass as hor'deurves elsewhere.

"To new friendships." Emma remarked raising her glass.

Toasting to that, Ororo hoped to make many new friends in the coming weeks and months. The school was understaffed and the future was looking dark with storm clouds she had no sway over on the horizon. Going for another sip of her drink to only find ice pressed against her lips she realized how lost in thought she must have been.

"You needn't worry so much Mistress Munroe, I've already made a few calls about and called in some favours. You'll be making many new friends indeed." Emma remarked after ordering another round of drinks.

"Were you reading me?" Ororo asked a touch shocked.

"Maybe just a little." Emma admitted.

"Goodness, now I can imagine just how it must be for you and so many others always in the limelight." Ororo tittered thinking of her guilty pleasure.

"Oh darling trust me, if I were to air some of the dirty laundry I've happened upon even the tabloids would be scandalized." Emma laughed, hardly reassuring Ororo at the same time.

With their latest round of drinks came their dinner, or what she was assured was it. Admiring it for a time having a sip of her cocktail, she looked to find Emma doing much of the same.

"I do not know if I should eat it or put it up on the refrigerator back at the school." Ororo whispered.

Emma though appeared to be far ahead of her having a bit of fun with their food at the expense of the chefs pride and the ludicrous cost. Taking a bite of what she hoped was a garnish she waved over the waitress and made a breath like one having too much to eat.

"Excuse me, could I get this bagged, I don't believe I shall be able to finish it all." Emma said theatrically earning some looks from the other patrons.

Ororo couldn't quite tell if the waitress was offended or struggling not to laugh, a quick trip to the kitchen amounting to raised voices of indignation. Coming back subdued with a hastily made doggie back, now the waitress looked on the verge of tears. The humour drained from Emma who pulled out her phone and hit the speed dial.

"Warren, so sorry to bother you. One last favour, I'd like my last act as CEO of my company to branch in the restaurant business. Yes, yes I know exactly how I'd like to, you can start by purchasing the establishment I am at now. Oh, and be a dear and have Tracie's wage doubled as her tip for such wonderful service. As for this pathetic excuse of a meal I believe we can take the cuisine in a new direction. Just leave everything to Marcy, Ta." Emma carried on the one side of the conversation that Ororo could easily imagine the other.

In lieu of a pin dropping there were more than a few forks clattering against the floor, the whole of the restaurant looking to Emma. Where there had once been whispered remarks if it were her there was no doubt left now.

"I believe I've had my fun for the evening, shall we retire to my suite for a nightcap Mistress Munroe? I'm sure we could entertain the idea of ordering in if you've found your appetite." Emma said, excusing herself to lead the way.

With nothing else to do but follow after her, Ororo wondered if the school was really ready for the eccentric woman.

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	8. Chapter 8

Marvel owns the X-men, no profit is to be made by this work.

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The office was sparsely furnished though what furniture did adorn it ranged from antiques like the desk to the latest model as with the televisions that hung in a semicircle behind. What bit of paperwork that still found its way to the desk was neatly filed, a few tablets and a laptop set aside chiming now and again as emails and such poured in. The lighting was kept low with most of the illumination coming from the high end flat screens. The clink of ice settling in a glass as it melted saw a hand reach from behind the high backed chair to an ice bucket to freshen the glass with a couple more cubes and a few fingers of vodka.

At the door a knock came that brought no invitation, the glass vanishing behind the chair to be set back with just a hair less. The knock came again and was ignored anew, the televisions seemingly of more interest as they mutely played everything from news clips to viral videos and assorted rants from Joe or Jane America with their dialogue subtitled beneath. The knock came again never raising in urgency or volume, just a polite tap, tappity tap begging for attention. This time though the door was opened a crack with a young woman's head peeking in from the dimly lit hall behind.

"Senator?" The young lady inquired.

"I'm right here Gail, and please this is just the office. You may call me Sir."

Stepping in holding a stack of envelopes and closing the door behind her as quietly as she could, Gail stood there for a second to straighten her skirt and...adjust herself with a push upwards before walking in flaunting her heels expertly that garnered her attention throughout the office, some good and some bad though not that she cared either way as she only had her eyes on one man.

"Sorry Sir, I just realize how hard you worked and I rather like the sound of it, Senator Creed." Gail apologized, coming to a halt at the desk to stand there with the envelopes in hand waiting until he was ready to give her an audience.

"If you knew my father, Sir would be more than enough." Graydon remarked from behind his chair still sitting watching the screens.

The one thing they all had in common was the subject, the Mutant Debate, both sides arguing over whether a person should be registered as one would a firearm or a pet. Finding his glass and having another sip, the ice clattered as he set it down calling for another top up as he let a sigh go and closed his eyes savouring the slight inebriation he was nursing. Hearing a hand in the ice bucket and a couple of cubes falling into his glass, he spun his chair just enough to see Gail doing him the service of topping up his glass. It was more than a few fingers but perhaps it would last longer this time, arching an eyebrow as he watched her retrieve a hunk of ice to suckle on as she stood there waiting patiently.

"I take it those are the...reports I requested." Graydon asked with a pause and an admiring eye to the attention lavished on the ice cube.

"Yes Sir, for your eyes only. They just arrived by courier express, I brought them up immediately." Gail replied after crushing the ice between her teeth.

As far as personal aides went Gail was worth ever zero on her paycheck, just the perfect blend of ruthless and efficient with the right kind of ambitious and sultry. Having a sip and resting his glass, Gradyon took the envelopes in hand and set them with the rest of his paperwork. He could see the curiosity burning in her eyes and thought just how to diffuse it, finding a shard from the ice bucket and kissing it before dropping it in his drink. Taking the bottle in hand and having a hearty swig, he then topped up his glass and pushed it across.

"A night cap as it were, feel free to take tomorrow off as well Gail, paid of course. You're excused." Graydon remarked.

Enjoying as she bent low over the desk to retrieve the glass only to have a sip with a smile full of promises if he'd only just ask, she spun and walked out in a clatter of heels over the floors leaving him to admire her passing. Having a glance to the one envelope on the top, a swig from the bottle helped him drown the desire so suddenly roused realizing everything it might hold.

"Well Father, lets us just see if you were actually telling the truth." Graydon remarked, taking up the envelope and tearing it open.

Leaning back in the chair and reading through everything so very, very carefully to make sure he understood it all, he had worked a small miracle for it to happen in secret without anyone being the wiser. But there in black and white was the truth of it, the fact that he had done the very same for the man who bore all too much an uncanny likeness to the face he saw in the mirror every day had brought up a second round of business to find out the truth. How just like the cruel fates to go and hire an assassin only to find out he was your dear old daddy.

"So it's true, I finally know who Mommy Dearest is, and already cured too. That saves me the trouble. Now then, just where have you gotten off to my dear Mummy. What a cruel little joke it was telling the orphanage my family name was Creed, though I suppose Darkholme would be a little more notorious now wouldn't it?" Gradyon mused, throwing down the paternity report he had paid a tidy sum for.

Taking up the bottle again and going back to all his research, with another swig he settled down in his chair feeling a new fire burning in his belly that he couldn't blame on the spirits. The cast off son of two of the worst mutants in the world, he could almost appreciate the irony in it. A fanatic and a killer, the child they had made indeed. Smiling at the thought, before he was through there would undoubtedly be a family reunion to settle the score.

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	9. Chapter 9

Marvel owns the X-men, no profit is to be made from this work.

* * *

The park was of the sort that people came to so they might enjoy a break from their hectic day at the office, walking distance to the business towers in whose shadow it sat yet offering a quiet retreat from the downtown bustle. With a broad courtyard filled with people busking for change, an assortment of food carts hocking their wares and plenty of benches it was a prime place to get out and enjoy a lunch break. A stones throw away was a retreat under the shade trees filled with tables for matches of chess or checkers depending on ones pleasure.

At one of those stone tables a man sat alone with a grey fedora from a bygone age when it had been part of the unspoken uniform of the man about or heading to the office, a matching grey overcoat resting beside him as he studied the game before him. Moving a rook with a finger lingering on it for a long while, he finally took it off and stared at the board in contemplation.

"Why is it not surprising I find you playing chess."

Looking up from his solitary game, he found a woman standing there with two cups of coffee in hand and a bag bearing a local deli dangling from her wrist. A blonde beauty with classic features and dark blue eyes, for a long awkward moment he stared at her filled with sorrow until a bitter smile tugged at his lips and bid her have a seat. Taking the offered coffee, he took the lid off it and let the steam waft in the breeze enjoying the aroma.

"I take it there are no hard feelings my dear?"

It was her turn for her eyes to darken thinking of the past, a tugging at her lips as she fought to keep her smile with a bowed head as she sought to compose herself. Instead she looked to the board before her and found herself smiling again thinking just who he was playing against, a careful defence set up with just enough subtle tricks left to keep things interesting if she were any judge. Raising a finger to touch a knight, only after his nod did she move it to capture a pawn.

"For what it's worth Raven I admit I am forever haunted by what happened to you, but I had a war to fight...even with all the time we have shared together." Erik remarked sorrowfully, one of many mistakes he had time to reflect upon these days.

"A Presidential Pardon has a way of taking the edge off. Though I can only imagine what they must be thinking now, the two of us here sharing coffee and playing chess." Raven said with a lilting laugh, reaching into her bag to pass off a wax paper wrapped sandwich to Erik.

"Now I know exactly how a worm on a hook feels." Erik said as he enjoyed a sip of his coffee.

"No plastic prison this time, then again what would be the point? You're just a harmless old man." Raven teased with just a hint of malice lacing her words.

"And what an injustice they did to you, once an unmatched beauty...now just so...plain." Erik said with a pained sigh, taking his turn to then unwrap his corned beef on rye.

"Careful what you wish for." Raven managed to laugh though her eyes told a different story, a girl's dream fulfilled long after the woman she had become put aside such childish notions.

Eating in silence as they matched wits from either end of the board, pieces were played and taken with reluctant fingers finally releasing them from their thrall. The coffee was sipped and savoured, the other patrons of the park unknowing of either the good and ill both had done in their long lives. But after it all one question would always stick in their throats like a bone, a choice made one day on a beach that had cast them if not the world on the course it now was set.

"I doubt you came all this way for a game of Chess my dear." Erik said while stuffing the last of his litter into his empty coffee cup.

"That was just a fringe benefit actually, but yes, I do have a reason for coming all this way." Raven admitted as she reached for her phone and fiddled with it before passing it over.

"I just tap it to play?" Erik asked playing the doddering old fool.

Upon the phone a video played of a man walking through customs, late twenties to early thirties at the most with a kind smile and by his lips many words of gratitude as he was sent on his way. The video lasted for all of two minutes at the most, a few different angles of security cameras spliced in to show the man's coming and his going as a taxi pulled up out front of what could only be JFK International. Passing it back Erik had his interest piqued as he levelled Raven with a look begging an explanation.

"Two weeks ago Frederick Langston arrived in New York, nothing odd until somewhere in the system something doesn't add up and a few emails are passed back and forth culminating in a phone call that states Frederick Langston is in fact supposed to be in a coma." Raven explains.

"Rather spry for being in a coma isn't he?" Erik replied with a teasing smile waiting for the other shoe to drop.

"Of course now an investigation was brought in with people being asked to describe the man they saw, this is the sketch that was made and the reason I am here." Raven added, a few swipes and taps of her phone made before passing it off over the table.

Staring at the photo as if looking at a ghost, Erik showed he was no doddering old fool and expertly worked the touch screen to zoom in and reassure his eyes weren't failing him. With the colour drained from his face he handed it back off to Raven who offered him the first bit of real sympathy as she reached to take his trembling hand in her own.

"The moment I found out I came to you..." Raven whispered.

"Thank you Raven, and I would like to say this again, just how sorry I am for what happened to you." Erik replied with his eyes misting as a sole tear fell down his weathered and wrinkled cheek.

"I've already forgiven you Erik, but hearing you say it does help. Of course now the only problem is the assorted intelligence community watching us. Really, as a former spy in the Cold War I am insulted by this new breed of spook." Raven replied, a smile given to Erik with rolled eyes following as she looked around the park.

At that though a light lit in Erik's eyes with a smile finding his lips, looking around the park and picking out just all the spooks and ghosts that had been watching him ever since he had made his escape after Alcatraz.

"While I sure the Golden Gate would be beyond me now, I believe I can do something about our uninvited guests." Erik remarked only to savour the surprise he saw on those dark blue eyes he remembered as the most beautiful shade of yellow.

With only one last move to make on the board, Erik moved his rook that along with his queen had Raven trapped and defeated. Turning again to the rest that had been watching them the whole while he smiled to the audience and imagined the irritation and rage their superiors would know.

"Checkmate." Erik said, a twist of his hands like that of a stage magician resulting in guns being torn from their holsters to hover in the air before the collected agents of so many different agencies.

"How...?" Raven gasped in shock and surprise at the spectacle.

With a twist of his hand the guns started to dismantle as intended with the bullets falling to the ground in a clatter of metallic rain along with the useless mess of parts. Rising and picking up his jacket to throw it on, he looked around to the gathered who stared at him with open mouthed awe and horror only to give them a tip of his hat.

"That's a question I'd like an answer to myself my dear Mystique, perhaps we can find out together along with just who this Frederick Langston really is. Shall we be off?" Erik replied as he offered his arm.

Where Raven Darkholme and Erik Lehnsherr had respectively sat enjoying a game of chess, two very different people left the park in the flurry of activity that followed their passing. Amidst the irritated and outraged complaints of loss of service and such an entire intelligence community was sent back to the veritable stone age as their phones and every dirty bit of electronic wizardry suddenly failed. All with the exception of one matronly woman snapping away with her trusty 35mm camera to zoom in and take a few more shots of the pair leaving.

"Bloody Amateurs." Moira hissed in embarrassment of all these children thinking themselves agents and spies.

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Author's Note : Going to try and tie in the First Class Continiuty along with the X movies as well as I can, of course with the exception of Emma who of course is more around the age of Ororo and the other X-men of the original movies. I hope you all enjoy, more to come soon! Thanks and Toodles for the reviews, follows and favourites :)


	10. Chapter 10

Marvel owns the X-men, no profit is to be made from this work.

* * *

Pulling up to a school in a rental with out of state plates, two men stepped out of the car to admire a place they had not seen in years. They remembered it as a home when they needed one and a place they came to learn about themselves and become friends if not family. The man that had brought them together had always been a dreamer, but back then his dream had been much simpler and come to pass with his name in brass on the weathered stone of the gate, the Charles Francis Xavier School for Gifted Children.

"Looks bigger."

"Yep, had some additions tacked on there and there see. Huh, wonder what they did with that huge dish."

"Don't remind me about that dish."

"Well, it worked didn't it?"

"He pushed me! Straight off! He could have killed me!"

"Pussy."

Laughing at the memories roused by their banter, they stood in silence for a while just taking it all in. They'd been there at the very beginning and now they were back, truth be told they could never say no to her...she knew where all the bodies were buried.

"Oh hey, know what? My kid goes here, Terri. Sweet girl, used to live with her Ma. Be nice to see her again."

"Huh, hope she takes after her mom for her sake."

"You always gotta be an asshole don't you Alex? Lets head on in already."

The trip up the drive had them seeing some kids out on the lawn playing or just off reading under the shade of some old trees that looked bigger than they remembered. Curious looks were thrown there way by some but for the most they were ignored. Parking out front and grabbing their duffles, they walked up together and had an awkward moment deciding who would knock after their fists were raised and ready only to settle it with throwing lots. Paper over rock, Alex knocked only to hear a noise he was sure to have misheard.

"Is that...smoke?" Sean asked noticing the wafting haze drifting under the threshold.

"Man, that stinks." Alex coughed.

With the door opening they looked up into the visage of a man who bore a striking likeness to another they knew once, though enough differences to be seen leaving them confused. Dressed casually in a T and jeans with bare feet, the man looked eagerly to the pair with a smile with all too many teeth in it.

"Hello Friends, Herr Logan had an appointment to keep. You are not movers are you, he told me to send away any more movers." The man greeted.

"Uh..." Sean said with his jaw slack.

"No, we're..." Alex tried, having to look to Sean for a bit of help.

"Forgive me, where are my manners. Wagner, Kurt Wagner. A pleasure yes?" Kurt greeted with a tri-fingered hand offered.

Looking from his own hand to that of Kurt's, Alex hesitated for a moment before shaking and having another thorough glance from head to toe of the blue man who bore a striking resemblance to another he knew from years before.

"Yes, I'm..." Alex started.

"Daddy!"

Deafened as he clutched his ears and felt his stomach long to revolt at the torment, Alex blinked past the stars he saw to see a teenaged girl rushing headlong to tackle his friend in a hug. Spinning her around in his grasp, Sean looked every bit the proud father happily reunited with his daughter.

"Well, she sure takes after you in some ways man." Alex confessed smirking.

"You must be Mister Cassidy! Theresa has told me all about you. A pleasure, and you, you're Alex yes? Here, let me take your bags for you." Kurt said merrily, the bags handed over to vanish along with the man himself in a bamf.

Staring after him, Sean and Alex shared another look with Theresa held dearly as the smoke cleared. Noticing a friend waving down the hall, Terri took off after a kiss to her father's cheek and a promise to be back soon. Left alone at the door the two finally found their voices after the unexpected welcome back to the school.

"You don't think..." Alex started.

"No, god no. No way." Sean objected.

"But I mean, him...and he's blue, and...those eyes." Alex pointed out.

"There is no way Alex, he has to be..." Sean said trying to do some math in his head.

"But those eyes!" Alex pressed.

"There's just no way she...and him..." Sean tried, the math in his head leaving a window he didn't want to peer into.

"Well, I mean, you had a kid didn't you? Anything's possible." Alex remarked with a shrug.

"You can really be an asshole Alex." Sean snorted, heading on in.

Smirking, Alex headed on after his friend in need of a hot meal and a shower after spending all too much time in a car over the past few days.

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"You'll call me once you land?" Bobby asked.

"Moment I make sure ma bags ain't off ta Taiwan I'll call ya." Marie promised.

"I loaded up your tablet with some movies and a few shows I thought you'd like." Kitty added.

"Thanks Kit, that'll help for sure." Rogue smiled and gave her friend a hug.

"Just remember to tell her she still owes me fifty bucks." Kitty reminded.

Smiling, Marie looked between her two best friends and had to take a breath feeling suddenly overwhelmed. She wished he could be here but that he'd be standing out there as her plane took off was enough. She still couldn't believe she was going through with it, but she hadn't promised anything yet beyond a summer vacation to try and make up her mind one way or the other. Next stop Beverly Hills by way of LAX, a far cry from Meridian and even Westchester.

"You'll give him a hug for me won't you?" Marie asked to receive an overlapping no and yes from Bobby and Kitty respectively.

"She can hug him, but I'll get one last one from you now and a little Sugah." Bobby teased with a kiss.

"All o' this is just one big maybe mister, you remember that now y'hear? She just sounded...lonely on the phone. That's all." Marie swore.

"Just trying it on for size, I know." Bobby nodded.

"Next time you see me I'll be a full fledged X-man, woman...whatever." Kitty promised.

Thinking of everything they were going through and all the danger they accepted as everything it meant to try and make a future that would be everything they all wanted, Marie enjoyed her new freedom and pulled them both into a hug with both pressing their cheeks against hers to feel the tears mingling. It wasn't goodbye, it was just see you later. There was just one person missing from this who couldn't be there.

"Go on girl, time to get groped by the TSA with your only worry being 'em getting fresh or frisky." Kitty teased.

"Oh thanks for remindin' me Kit, you and yer damn vids got me too creeped out ta just go through their damn X-ray." Marie groaned, one last peck to Bobby's cheek as she grabbed her carry on.

Waiting there until she was gone into the milling masses making their flights, Bobby and Kitty wandered off back through the airport heading back through the taxis and airport limos until they found a Jeep parked with a view of the planes. He was sitting there on the hood with coffee and donuts enough for them all.

"Get down here mister, got a delivery for you." Kitty said as she walked up to stand in front of him.

Looking down to her petite self and raising an questioning eyebrow, he obliged her and slid off down the hood to let her wrap him up in a hug he returned with a hand rest upon her head. While he couldn't be there to see her off for obvious reasons, he'd at least wait until her plane was nothing more than a distant speck in the sky.

"Thanks kid." Logan said softly, pulling her close for one last hug.

Climbing back on the hood and staring off at the planes taxing up to the runway for takeoff, he shared one of those moments that were all too few and far between with kids he had to realize were growing up right before his eyes. It was a humbling thought, thinking about all the rest back at the school that he had sworn to help one way or another be it putting on leather and doing what he did best, or just making a right 'idjit' of himself trying to teach them about Shakespear.

Even though he knew just which plane had been hers they stayed until sunset just watching the contrails drift through the sky that fell from azure to rosy red. Listening to music on the radio and just talking about whatever came to mind, Logan had to smile bitterly thinking of all the time spent looking for his past never thinking of his future and just where he was finding himself. With a glance to Kitty napping in the back of the Jeep and a look to Bobby laid out staring up at the sky as those first stars burned bright heralding the new night, wherever he was going he was in good company.

-=+=–=+=–=+=–=+=-

"I don't know how many miles it is to Westchester. We've a full tank of gas, my credit card has credit cards, it's dark, and we're wearing very, very expensive designer sunglasses..." Emma said taking a seat behind the wheel of the convertible 350z with a megawatt smile.

"Hit it." Ororo replied as was her line.

A night spent sharing a suite and getting to know another all the better over a bottle of wine and whatever movies came up had Ororo confessing her fear of flying if only for the tight quarters. The lilting laugh had Emma sounding nearly insulting at first until she smiled almost patronizingly back as if talking to a child.

'All you had to do was say so dear.'

A day spent shopping only to realize 'No' was a word Emma wasn't accustomed to had Ororo wondering again if the school was really ready for her, but a phone call by the eccentric woman had the very car they now enjoyed brought just in time to be heading back home. With the wind in her hair and savouring the relief of knowing she'd soon be back aside her beau and all the children she was so endeared to now, she let herself relax that her ordeal in Washington was over with. For now at the very least, the backroom battles and congressional hearings all fighting a very different war than she was accustomed to.

"Oh just leave all that to myself and young Warren, as I always say, one needs to learn to delegate." Emma called over the rushing of the wind and the roar of the engine.

"That is a horrid habit you have." Ororo cried though she found herself laughing.

"Habits you can quit dear, this is just who I am. As I said to the last man who swore to take my hand, love me or leave me baby. You just have no idea how hard it is to find a man who isn't so terribly insecure with himself that he cannot just open him up to the woman he professes to love." Emma said with a giggle.

Finding a smile and thinking of just the man Emma was speaking of, Ororo settled in for the ride, to Westchester and beyond, wondering just what Logan would really think of the woman on their first meeting.


	11. Chapter 11

Marvel owns the X-men, no profit is to be made by this work.

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He had been walking around the halls aimlessly looking for some of the old school he had called home back when he had been not much older than the kids he met time to time. Looking as if it had been there forever, the student dorms were one of those new additions, heading on past to the old bones of the building. Finding a familiar window, he looked out and saw the shrubs that had broken Sean's fall were still there as he had a good laugh thinking of them all watching and waiting.

"Remember to scream..." Alex whispered with a chuckle.

From his vantage he could just barely make out a place he had yet to visit, just the flickering of the eternal flame piercing the darkness out across the lawn. It had been something he had put off ever since he got the call from Hank months before, and yet here he was confronted with it fresh out of excuses. Heading on through the old bones filled with memories of bygone days, he couldn't go off there empty handed.

Standing before the door with a fist raised to knock, he caught himself at the power the place still had over him knowing well the Lord of the Manner was off evermore. Stepping in and flattering at the sight of the empty wheelchair sitting off by the window, he had been there for that too as he found his feet obeying him again stepping up to the desk. He found it just where he figured he would, a bottle of scotch in the second drawer under a stack of files.

"Looks like you didn't get a chance to have a drink of this one Chuck." Alex remarked at the unopened bottle.

"Still the second drawer?" Sean called from the door.

"Right where we found it the first time." Alex said showing the purloined bottle.

Walking together in companionable quiet though the halls to the foyer and beyond, the garden path was neatly tended that lead to the memorial. There were fresh flowers out and little notes, a few cards, even a pair of gaudy pink sunglasses at one that had Alex feeling a twist in his stomach. Charles Francis Xavier, Jean Grey, and his own baby brother Scott.

"You remember when he started losing his hair?" Sean asked looking to the likeness of the man in the granite.

"I told him just to use whatever Hank was shedding." Alex chuckled, working the foil from the bottle and easing the cork out.

Looking to the three memorials he couldn't help but think maybe they should have done the same for another years ago, but then again he always kept that man in his heart that still weighed heavy despite all the forgiveness his last moment conveyed. Having a long drink, he passed the bottle back to Sean who raised it before taking one himself.

"To Darwin..." Sean said softly, the whisky burning in his belly.

"To stupid little brothers..." Alex added, taking the bottle again and this time pouring a belt to the grass.

"To driving him bald." Sean laughed, having a swig and pouring a belt before Xavier's marker.

Looking to the last, though they hadn't known her they could tell she must have been loved with the flowers laid at her marker and the envelopes carrying secret messages for her. Having a drink in silence knowing not what to say to her honour, Alex bent low to his brothers and toyed with the sunglasses there thinking back all those years when the awful truth came out, that it ran in the family.

"Funny how it took Hank to help us both keep it under control." Alex whispered, daring to try on the shades but figuring they had to have been a girls before setting them down again.

"He always wanted to be like his big brother." Sean said softly as he passed the bottle back.

"He was a stupid kid who didn't know just how real it is, how easy it is to just..." Alex growled, unable to speak that last word that had been his fate in the end, to just die.

"Once you Summers set your mind to it..." Sean mused.

"You can't talk us out of it." Alex smirked bitterly thinking of the wedge it had driven between them.

"Terri talked about him a lot, told me he was a real stand up guy, a real role model. Well that and she had a huge crush on him, bloody hell man like I need to know that. Anyways, you should be proud of him." Sean admitted, those calls on birthdays and holidays making the infrequent visits bearable over the years.

"He's my brother, I'm always proud of him. Doesn't mean he doesn't deserve getting his ass handed to him for, for..." Alex heaved a breath as the stubborn tears finally fell.

Taking comfort from the hand that fell to his shoulder, he finished the last of the bottle and set it down beside the sunglasses as a promise to come back again for a bit more shit talking and a drink.

"Hey Bro, you see Dad up there, deck him one for me will ya?" Alex said, drying his eyes and climbing to his feet.

"I hear that bar down the road is still around." Sean smirked trying to brighten the mood.

"Something tells me we shouldn't be driving, bad example to the kids we're supposed to be helping as of tomorrow." Alex remarked, running a hand through his hair unable to believe himself.

"Who said anything about driving?" Sean said with a wink.

"No, no way." Alex barked realizing just what his friend was talking about.

"Pussy." Sean said throwing the word back in his friends face.

Gritting his teeth realizing he'd worked himself into a corner, taking Sean's hands and holding tight as they took to the air.

"You drop me and I'll kick your ass." Alex threatened, all the while thrilling at the rush of flying over the tree tops.

-=+=–=+=–=+=-

"Well ya told me ta call ya the moment I landed." Marie growled as she stalked along to the carousel to find her luggage.

"Well it ain't my fault if my connection had a delay, and I tried callin' ya then but ya didn't pick up. Well it's yer fault for havin' a dead battery mister." Rogue rambled, grabbing her bag and heading off to the doors.

"Well okay then...alright, yer forgiven. Sweet dreams to you too Sugah. I gotta go." Marie carried on in a gentler tone with a blush.

With a continent between her and the only home she'd known since -it- had happened to her and changed her life, she walked through the doors and looked around to all the taxis and limos lined up picking up passengers right along with everyone else reunited with friends and family. Hearing her phone ring again she thought it might be Bobby having something else to say, only to see Jubilee come up.

"Heya Jubes." Marie answered.

"She hated that name as a child, I see she grew out of that." A woman remarked with a hint of amusement in her voice.

"Uh..sorry, miss. I'm, uh Rogue. Who's this?" Marie stammered.

"Her mother, Missus Lee though you can just call me Cayla. If you look to your left you should see me." Cayla said.

Turning and looking around, she saw someone leaning against what at first looked like a Landrover until she noticed the Mercedes logo on the front. Dressed in jeans, a blouse and calf length boots it was easy to see the relationship between mother and daughter even if the mother looked to have a sense of style. Rushing up a little out of breath not wishing to keep her waiting, Marie offered a hand in greeting.

"Jubilation was called into work, so I said I would pick you up. Have you eaten?" Cayla explained and inquired all the while helping Marie with her bags.

"A burger at my connection." Marie replied though the thought of a real meal had her stomach voice its own opinion.

"It seems we're both famished then, I know just the place. Hop on in." Cayla said, climbing on in.

Driving in silence as they pulled out of the airport and jumped onto the freeway, jet lagged as she was the hours awake trying to outrun the setting of the sun from one coast to the next cumulated in a yawn that roused another from Cayla.

"I'm sorry for ya havin' ta pick me up Missus Lee." Marie apologised feeling horrid.

"Think nothing of it, a taxi would have just been so crude and vulgar, hardly the impression I'd like to make. Besides, a day cooped up in the lab had me in need of some fresh air and a proper meal that wasn't found from the vending machine down the hall." Cayla promised, a dismissive hand waved to the worries expressed.

Noticing the badge hanging from the rear view with Cayla's likeness on it, albeit in a labcoat with her long hair tied in a bun and thick rimmed glasses, Marie noticed that it was actually Dr. C. Lee. Talking about ones parents at the school was usually a taboo with many having hard luck tales and painful memories accompanying the revelation that they were mutants.

"Unlike my husband you can be assured I don't bring my work home with me, the CDC would frown on that." Cayla joked, a playful smile roused at Marie's shocked expression.

"I'm among one of their virologists, keeping an eye out for the next pandemic." Cayla continued.

"Wow, I mean I knew Jubes always said her folks were smart but..." Marie offered, remembering a time Bobby had spilled the local school gossip on her friend forcing her into a corner.

Jubilee had then just said they were both doctors and that her mother was smart, 'like keep up with Doctor McCoy smart'. Working for the CDC did sound 'Hank smart' she had to agree.

"If you don't mind me askin' what's your husband do?" Marie asked trying to carry the conversation along.

"A psychiatrist, I've learnt to get very blunt with him and my feelings due to his constant nit picking of meanings and subtext. I believe the last argument we were in I threatened to shove my stiletto up his buttocks if he didn't quit badgering me as soon as I got home." Cayla said sweetly despite the gruff language used.

"That's what ya meant by him bringin' his work home?" Marie asked with a nod given.

Warming to the woman, she settled in her seat and looked out to the city amazed that she was really here. Los Angeles, with all the places she had only heard of littered around from Hollywood to Santa Monica and of course where she would be calling home for the summer at least, Beverly Hills. From her window seat on the plane she had been afforded a view of the Pacific as little more than a black expanse running off past a city of light filled with all the Californian dreams that brought people looking to make it big.

Pulling off the freeway and on down a boulevard, passing by clubs and restaurants and the ever present McDonalds Marie looked to all the people just out enjoying themselves seemingly without worry. Living the life she had for the past years and meeting the people she called friends, it was hard to forget what lay beyond that veil of normalcy.

Hearing a song she knew, a remix at that she remembered from a show she had been watching with Kitty and Jubilee alike, she felt her first bit of homesickness realizing just how far away it was. All the same she turned up the stereo to see Cayla smiling down at her.

"A gift from Jubilation, a soundtrack to welcome you. In her absence she asked me to say Welcome to L.A., Woman." Cayla said fondly.

"Thanks." Marie said smiling, noticing the hand resting on hers squeezing her gently.

"As her mother I'd also like to say thank you, I'm told you were among those who had gone off to rescue her and the others. I want you to feel at home while you're here." Cayla added.

Nodding even as she felt a flush wash over her and tears well in her eyes, it was refreshing to realize there were parents out there that didn't care about the big bad M word and just accepted their children for who they were.

"Thank you Missus Lee." Marie whispered struggling to find her voice.

"You're welcome, now then lets get a bite." Cayla said as she pulled off to a restaurant with valet parking.

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Having gotten the call they'd be there soon, Logan sat out front of the garage in a lawn chair with a cooler of beer beside him suffering through reading the Taming of the Shrew for the start of the new school year only a summer away.

"Gonna have ta talk ta Ro about some of these books." Logan grumbled, flipping a page and having another sip.

"I could suggest a few."

Looking up to a shadowy part of the roof he found Kurt sitting there with a foot across his knee and his arms behind his head, staring up into the night sky with his tail idly flicking back and forth.

"Feel free. Anythin' has gotta be better than this." Logan remarked waving the book around.

"Treasure Island has always been a favourite." Kurt noted.

"Sure, whatever. Just send me a memo." Logan rumbled as he got back to his reading.

"Did you mean an email?" Kurt asked, his yellow eyes piercing the darkness.

"Did I say email?" Logan countered, kicking back and flipping back a few pages figuring he'd lost his train of thought.

The laughter wasn't mocking or harsh, in fact Logan had to admit he didn't mind hearing it. Anyone that could sneak up on him was the kind of guy he wanted at his back in a fight anyway, Kurt having returned to the school a few days back. He was taking a liking to the guy, and the fact that he was good with the kids was a bonus. It left him free to get some work done while Kurt babysat.

Hearing the roar of an engine pushed hard with the squeal of tires taking a turn all too sharp, Logan looked up and waited for the headlights to pierce the bend and vanish in that dip before another blind hill that would lead them to the front gate of the school. Ripping up the drive and coming to a halt in burnt rubber and exhaust, Logan sat his ground and reached out with a foot to tap the bumper listening to the engine purr. As it was cut only the sound of the tinkling of cooling metal in the warm night joined the two doors being thrown open.

Looking to the leggy blond in white, he looked past her which earned him a curious look from both her and Ororo. Shrugging, he went back to his book and beer leaving them to walk around front and sit against the hood of the sports car.

"Just what were you looking for?" Emma asked though something about the smile in her eyes told him she already knew.

"The Corgi's, yer highness." Logan said, offering a bow as best he could manage from his seat.

The two ladies burst out into a fit of giggles that bid nothing good for him, looking to Ro to see her a little more carefree than her usual calm. Having to smile at it, it was probably with a bit of trouble if she loosened up a bit and unwound. Keeping things bottled up was never good for anyone, he knew that better than most and it still weighed on his soul just what it had cost someone else he held dear to his heart.

"Oh my goodness my dear Ororo, this one is surprisingly deep. I can see why you like him." Emma said rather out of the blue.

Staring up at her and thinking again to a phone call he'd gotten from Ro, he looked squarely to Emma and did his best to imagine her in her knickers. All it earned him was a seductive smile that told him just as much as he expected, she was the real deal and wasn't about to shy from it.

"A very nice try Mister Logan, but better than you have undressed me with their eyes. In his defence darling he was just playing, I wouldn't go setting an alarm tonight as I believe both you and he will be needing a good slumber." Emma said, turning to Ororo to sooth the jealousy that had been roused.

"Here's something from next years reading list." Logan said throwing the book he was reading to Emma.

With eyes only for her, he kissed Ororo long and hard until he felt her nails dig into his shoulders. Not caring that he had an audience, he quickly scooped her up into his arms and walked off to the school needing a break from being the responsible one while she was away. It was time to have a conference with the Headmistress and work out a few issues he had, right down to just who the heck had walked off with his bottle of Scotch he had just stocked Chuck's desk.

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	12. Chapter 12

Marvel owns the X-men, no profit is to be made by this work.

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"You have been checking your phone often."

Draped across his bare chest with the silken sheets she so enjoyed, Ororo smiled as she saw his hand pause in his act of checking the time and looking for any errant messages or missed calls. He set it down on the night stand face down with the glow an aura around it, the room cast in near darkness aside from the view out her window of the estate.

"Hadn't noticed." Logan fibbed.

"Liar." Ororo teased.

Hearing his questing hand fishing through the ice bucket that had held their champagne, she waited in anxious anticipation until an ice cube was trailed down her back sending shivers through her. The playful torment lasted but a few moments, looking up to see him slip it past his lips to savour until he bit down hard with a hash crunch of shattered ice.

"You could always text Robert." Ororo offered with a grin.

"She'll call me if she needs me, she knows I'll be there." Logan whispered, toying with her hair now.

"That is an admirable quality in a friend."

"How about a lover?"

Curling up beside him so she could stare into his eyes, reaching up she trailed a finger down his jaw and had it find its place against his lips where he gave it a kiss, her thumb resting against his chin to tilt his head just so. His eyes were as ever changing as the weather that was beholden to her whim, a youth one moment full of cocky pride to those of a man having seen the hardships of the world that weighted on him. Yet so very rarely his eyes were the age old ones of a man full of wisdom earned by walking the long road of the riddle at sunset with his cane in hand.

Leaning up for a kiss and finding his lips parted, she savoured him in a way those few lovers had never fulfilled her, Logan never looking for more than she was willing to give with how guarded she had to be. They both had their own pasts they couldn't talk about for different reasons, they had their mistakes and their torches to carry in memoriam. All he longed from her was the comfort she was willing to give in these moments, the parting always a promise to find another again when the time was right.

"I'll take that as a yes." Logan chuckled, boyish eyes looking down on her full of adoration.

"Very...admirable..." Ororo breathed between kisses to his chest.

It was enough as he wrapped her up in his arms, laying still and quiet listening to the breeze blowing out past the balcony. Thinking just to rest her eyes listening to the beat of his heart, the dreams that came were just as easily forgotten looking out to the dawn of the new day with the indigo night chased off by the crimson dawn promising azure skies.

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Seated off in the booth and staring down at the prices of the meals, Marie made her first mistake pulling out her purse and digging for her wallet to find out just how much cash she had on her. The tittering laughter of Cayla stung at first until she saw her smiling back kindly, rather motherly she had to admit.

"Put your purse away and let me treat you, everything Jubilation told me about you thinks you could use a bit of pampering. Oooh, actually I am putting my foot down, you'll join me at the spa tomorrow. My treat." Cayla bulled along, reaching across the table to gently pat her hand.

"I can..." Marie tried, a finger finding her lips.

The shiver that raced down her back was one of such intimate encounters meaning such horrible things, learning to walk all over again and remember how nice they were just as before her harboured heritage awoke with a kiss.

"I'd like to tell you a secret, but you have to promise to keep it to yourself." Cayla said in a serious tone though her eyes held a hint of another with the mischief in them complete with a pinky raised.

"Okay." Marie replied, an oath made with pinkies.

"I have a horrible habit of listening in on phone calls of my daughter, of course these days that means standing outside of her door with a basket of laundry or whatever excuse I'd need if caught." Cayla revealed though hardly the promise Marie had thought was worth a pinkie swear.

"Long story short, I know she asked a few other girls at the school if they wanted to come out, but only because she knew their answer already. Between you and me, you were the one she had her hopes on and I'm glad you ended up coming out." Cayla said softly with a barely repressed smirk.

Thinking back to everything Bobby had told her, just how bad she felt thinking out of everyone else she might be just another in a long list to say no, Marie slumped back in her seat and stared unseeing as she struggled with the truth of it all.

"I am gonna kill her..." Marie whispered finally finding her voice.

"She gets that from her father, horribly conniving when she wants something. But we did promise now didn't we?" Cayla admitted, wiggling her pinkie.

Looking to the lady across from her with mischievous eyes full and tight lips fighting to break out into a broad grin, Marie looked back to the menu putting out any thought of the price and just looking for something to sate her roused appetite.

"Ya sure she just gets that from her Daddy?" Marie asked.

"Oh entirely, from me she gets the good grace to know when she's being naughty and goes out of the way to say sorry in her own way. Dinner on me tonight and the Spa tomorrow, then I think my husband will be treating us again due to an indiscretion with his secretary." Cayla prattled on.

Dropping her jaw at the sudden revelation, Marie wished she hadn't already placed her order to the waiter if only so she could hide behind the menu again. Something about Cayla's eyes though told of a bit more fun being played at her own expense, Marie blushing at being played.

"Oh dear nothing like that, though that is a very naughty image..." Cayla mused.

"His secretary and him...?" Marie asked.

"Bradley and my John, on the reception desk. Goodness, ahem, yes my apologies as my mind wanders. Nothing like that, no, not at all. Bradley just earned himself a place in the dog house for listening to my husband's advice. Brilliant as he is there is a reason he isn't helping Hollywood couples and other movers and players with their marital strife. That reminds me, I should schedule a lunch with Bradley just so I can tell him how to properly apologise."

Without seeing either Bradley or Mister Lee, Marie had to use her imagination for what had Cayla looking so suddenly randy for lack of a better word. Sipping her ice water finding her mouth dry, Marie looked on around the restaurant wondering if she might see a celebrity of some sort or another. Smiling up appreciative to the waiter who brought a round of drinks to the table, virgin cocktails Cayla promised, sipping hers Marie saw a flurry of activity at the doors and found herself reaching for her phone just in case.

"Oh god..." Cayla groaned, snapping her fingers to catch the nearest waiters attention.

"Miss?" The waiter greeted, Cayla smiling at the compliment.

"Vodka. In this now. Be as generous as the tip you'd like to receive." Cayla cooed.

Hardly understanding until she just what all the fuss was about, Marie felt her blood run cold looking on not a Hollywood celebrity or some socialite and model, but instead a Senator whose face had become just as common thanks to the ravenous media. As one who had donned the leather she knew him instantly, the man who had picked up the torch dropped by the late Senator Kelly though another had taken that man's place for a time.

He stood there smiling for some conversation with the apparent proprietor of the restaurant and his mixed fans, standing for photos and debating the issues of the day with those gathered at the lines. All throughout this Cayla sat there with her eyes closed waiting for her drink and rubbing the bridge of her nose.

"Miss?" The waiter asked as he returned with the freshened drink in hand.

Slugging it back and placing the glass down, Cayla waved them off with the mumbled words 'another'. Watching it all play out, Marie couldn't help but notice the way Senator Creed kept looking their way and feeling herself drawn into his penetrating gaze. She didn't know much about him other than that he was a rags to riches story that resonated with the American people, a charismatic man who had thrown his gauntlet down into the arena of politics and was gaining a rabid if not fanatical following...that clearly Cayla wasn't among.

The restaurant was a mixed bunch, people from both sides of the debate showing their colours with how they were enjoying their meals, many wiping their mouths to throw the napkins down and call for their bills. Through these Graydon walked unerringly to their table and looked from her to Cayla with a sharks smile.

"You hacked my phone?" Cayla asked.

"Of course." Graydon answered quickly.

"I'll have you charged." Cayla hissed, turning her full ire on him as her latest drink was set down.

"And our lawyers will thank us both, wine and dine another and the judge until it's all settled out of court." Graydon replied without a twitch of eye or falter of smile.

"I've already declined the transfer, if you try again I'll just quit." Cayla hissed, drinking down half of her cocktail in one thirsty gulp.

"Would you entertain a job prospect then?" Graydon asked, playing the unrepentant rogue as he pulled out his chequebook to sign a slip and throw down on the table with the pen.

"I love my husband and I've threatened to shove a stiletto up his buttocks. What do you think I would do to you given the chance?" Cayla growled.

"Flattery will get you nowhere, but the transfer on the other hand..." Gradyon teased.

"My dear Marie D'Ancanto, would you please witness that I have officially quit from the employ of the Center for Disease Control? That's a good girl, order whatever you like off the dessert menu. I'll get the paperwork sent tomorrow Graydon, you can stop currying favours to meddle with my career then." Cayla said all too happily.

For the first time Marie could see the tension in the Senator's jaw and the vehemence in his eyes. It was enough to distract her from the fact that her friend's mother knew her name in full and left her wondering just everything else she knew. With all the threats of litigation and tickets thrown around she reached across the table to take and finish the last of the cocktail in one gulp.

"Don't worry, that's on me." Graydon said with a smile and a salute as he walked off.

Left with an ashen taste in her mouth thinking in anyway she was owed a favour to the man who longed to have her friends hunted and subject to the very Cure she had taken all without their willing accord, she excused herself to the bathroom to vomit as so many divas and celebrities likely did in these stalls.

Running her face under the cool water and rinsing the awful taste from her mouth, the sound of the door opening had her looking up to see Cayla standing there looking troubled yet apologetic.

"I'm sorry you had to get dragged into all that." Cayla whispered.

Something about her voice reminded her of another just then, a phone call from a friend a world away in a distant land looking for a bit of the everyday in her life again. It was all the easier to see the daughter in the mother as she looked sheepishly to the floor, a far cry from the self possessed woman who had stood toe to toe with a man who had the words 'Presidential Candidate' tacked onto his news feeds.

"Old hat." Marie admitted.

The sad truth the two words spoke had Cayla closing the distance and pulling Marie into a long, heartfelt hug with more than a few tears exchanged. Her life had never been easy, a childish kiss sending her first beau into a comma, but looking up to Cayla she could see it was something they shared.

"A friend of a friend...of a friend told me you wouldn't let Jubilee come home after..." Marie whispered in the nearness, still finding it hard to voice that name knowing how tied up into the past of her best friend he was.

"That's how rumours are spread, all we...all I really said was that it wasn't a good time. I just couldn't keep saying no to her, but I'm glad she has a good friend around because I think she's going to need one." Cayla confessed.

"I'm here if ya need me too, Missus Lee." Marie whispered with a long hug.

"Good, because we all have a date at the Spa tomorrow, hell or high water." Cayla croaked, hugging hard with a few tears spilt.

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	13. Chapter 13

Marvel owns the X-men, no profit is to be made by this work.

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"I thought I'd find you two here."

It was getting on towards last call elsewhere in the world, but down at Harry's Hideaway as long as there was cold hard cash being passed across the bar the drinks kept flowing from the taps that had a choice between lager and ale. Looking up from their latest round, Alex and Sean turned to the door just as pretty much every other person in the bar had.

"Well if it isn't the brat herself, slumming it Emma?" Alex asked.

"A drink for the lady." Sean called, throwing his jacket down on the stool next to him.

"Thank you Sean." Emma remarked, dressed in more white than the bar saw other than the usual collection of sweat stained wife beaters.

The bartender looked on the verge of asking for some ID, thought better of it and then had a look at the back lot of bottles for something the lady might like. Dusting off a bottle of brandy with a tea towel and actually finding a snifter down under the bar, he poured the drink and left the bottle behind.

"Will wonders never cease, it's palatable." Emma said not caring if she was heard.

A look to the men whose company she shared showed them smirking over their drinks, recalling them as they had been on her first meeting with them, barely out of those teenaged years she still had a few years yet to reach. Into their forties now with a lifetime behind their eyes, she thought she could even see the first distinguished touch of grey highlighting Alex's blonde while Sean had a few rugged wrinkles weathering him.

"I think I'm a little old to be a brat these days."

Shaking her head and thinking back to those days, then an only child her parents had never been one to say no when it came to indulging her. Right along with her indulged fantasies of hearing voices and hearing all the secrets people kept, seeing the masks they wore to hide their true selves filled with all the base desires and vices. Right up until a charming man had come calling one day to whisk her off to a school for truly gifted children.

"That's not what I see in the papers." Alex chuckled.

"Gossip, slander and outright lies." Emma promised.

"Bullshit." Sean barked with a rough laugh.

"Well, that's what I always told my shareholders. But enough about me, you're both looking deliciously handsome." Emma said with giggle.

"We're not boys anymore Emma, you can't just bat your lashes and pout to get your way." Alex snorted.

"Oh and I'm not a little girl anymore either, I have a whole...new...bag of tricks for getting my way." Emma said slowly, taking up her snifter for a slow sip and a lick of her lips.

"Same old Emma." Alex grinned.

"If you really think that, then Alex my dear I just might have to go about showing you how very much I have matured." Emma purred.

"Why don't I just get out between from you two." Sean offered, pounding back his drink and waving for another.

With a stool between them, Emma and Alex drank without saying a word, Emma absently running her finger along the rim of her glass. A look saw Sean off at the dart board looking to start a hustle, both smiling and shaking their heads.

"I always wondered why you never stuck around for more than a few years." Alex voiced the mutterings of his mind.

"Did you want the honest answer?" Emma asked, earning a nod.

"I didn't want to be around the day my boys didn't come home."

Looking across the span of that one stool to see a vulnerable Emma staring into her drink, Alex shifted that one seat and wrapped an arm about her shoulders pulling her close. With everyone at the school to choose from, she had picked him as the one she could always tell her secrets to.

"It was because you were the one out of them all who really knew what it was like to be alone." Emma said softly.

"Brat." Alex said, catching a slight smile from the corner of his eyes.

"To little girls and their first crush." Emma whispered, raising her glass in toast.

Joining her and putting back his beer, he tapped the bar for another and poured Emma a fresh snifter. Pulling out a fistful cash and digging through the crumpled bills, he saw her reaching into her jacket.

"Cash only Emma, they don't take credit. I got this." Alex said, cutting off her attempt to pay.

"We really are off the beaten path aren't we?" Emma laughed.

"They don't call it Harry's Hideaway for nothing." Alex smirked, paying their bill.

Catching the first signs of the brewing argument between Sean and the men he was playing, Alex just had to shake his head. Sitting at the bar with the prettiest lady out of the lot, likely out of all of Westchester County, he could still only think of her as that self-possessed girl from all those years before so much life had happened.

"I think I'm alright with that too." Emma sighed.

"So just what kind of trouble have you gotten us into?" Alex asked.

"Well, to start with...that bottle of Scotch you and Sean polished off left someone a bit disgruntled." Emma revealed, the mischief returning to her eyes.

Digging for some more cash and catching the eye of the bartender, he gave a nod to the dusty part of the shelves stocked with liquor with a muttered 'Scotch, the good stuff'. Eyeing the bottle and wiping off the dust, he gave a shrug and set it down beside the brandy. Hearing the first crack of a fist meeting flesh, the bar came to life with a fight breaking out at the dart boards.

"I could help him." Emma offered, two men grappling Sean as the third climbed to his feet from the floor.

"Nah, he's a good Boston boy, he's got this. Eh! Fifty on the Ginger!" Alex barked to the man taking bets.

Seeing her boys again after all the years, Emma had no worries of them not returning home from this fight. Showing surprising strength for his wiry frame, Sean slammed together the two holding him in a crush of skulls that echoed loud enough to have her wince. A punch to the throat had the first back on the ground gasping for hard fought breath, Sean throwing a wink to a lady patron younger than Emma herself, taking her beer and draining it before joining the fray again.

Waiting just long enough for the fight to be over and taking his earnings, Alex saw Sean head off to a table owing a lady a round. Turning to share a disbelieving look with Emma, he caught her looking after him full of surprise so rare of her.

"Let me guess, that's how he met Terri's mom." Alex asked.

"Except that the man he was fighting then happened to be her soon to be ex-boyfriend, heavens he has come into himself hasn't he?" Emma revealed as she snooped.

"Well, no sense waiting on him. What's say we head on back, I gotta put this where it belongs." Alex remarked with a shake of his head, taking up the dusty bottle of Scotch and offering her his hand.

Heading off out the genuine saloon doors to where her rented sports car looked out of place to so many rusty pick ups, Harleys, and a few stray quads, she took the wheel and waited for him to climb in before peeling out in a cloud of dust and gravel.

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Waking only to find out she'd been asleep for an hour after fumbling for her phone to check the time, how she couldn't just fall into the deep sleep of the weary after being up for so very long was beyond her. The bed was amazingly comfortable, the linens luxurious, even the mattress simply magnificent and yet here she was awake. Awake and thirsty.

Throwing off her blanket and giving herself a once over, Marie had only met Jubilee's father in passing earlier, her boxers and T shirt fine for a midnight meeting if he happened to be up. Peeking out the door of her guestroom, the hallway was dark and she had to remember if it was a right or a left to the stairs. Passing a door with a name written in glitter and plastic jewels, she peeked in to find Jubilee fast asleep in a room fit for a pretty, pink princess. By the time she had gotten home with Cayla, she'd been told by John that Jubilee had already gone to bed early but was eager to see her in the morning.

Coming to the edge of the stairs and noticing a splash of light casting the living room below in a dim glow, she waited there wondering if someone else was up when she caught the first snippet of quiet conversation below. Feeling decidedly nervous and bashful at being a guest in another's home, she slipped with her back against the wall to sit with her knees against her chest.

"Is there any reason Andy should be texting me?"

John, Jubilee's father, Marie had liked him in their brief meeting. He had a kind and patient smile and a soft voice that had her thinking he must be comfortable to talk with in his calling as a psychiatrist.

"That damn sneak..."

"I didn't read them, I knew if there was a real problem he would have called me first. Of course five texts and two ignored calls from my Wife's boss has me interested."

"I don't have bosses, I have superiors."

"I doubt there are very few people who are superior to you in any way."

Smiling at the obvious affection between the two, Marie sat in her hidden place listening and feeling horrible about snooping on the two but just unable to head back to her room.

"I quit my job."

"You make it sound as if you were selling cars and got bored."

The smack was sudden, but the laughter that followed it showed there was no heat in it. Seeing just what Cayla was talking about, John really couldn't leave his calling at the office and just simply lived and breathed it.

"I don't know who he has in his pocket, or how many, but that's the third transfer I've had to fight. I've had it, I know his politics and absolutely nothing good can be going on in Washington. But of course we both know the real reason why he is targeting me..."

"It was bound to come out sooner or later."

"She's our daughter, I won't have anyone, not one person treating her different!"

"So we sent her to a school across the country full of 'special' people..."

The slap was abrupt and sharp in the silence filled with little more than the air conditioning rumbling deep within the house. A litany of whispered apologies followed, Cayla instantly regretting it.

"What were we supposed to do? She just sat in her room afraid to touch anything, all because she blew up the tv just turning it on. She needed help I, we didn't know how to give her..."

"We were due a new one anyway, but you're right. We didn't know, but I still think we could have handled it all better than we did."

"Maybe we should have let her come home after..."

"To sit in her room, estranged from all her friends at school here? Thinking every groan of the house might have been them all over again? No, she needed people who had all been through what she had who could relate to her."

"Girls like Rogue."

It warmed her to think that even without them knowing she was there she still used her offered name, even if somehow she knew her real name. That was a question she'd still have to find a way to ask, but for now it was enough.

"Just let it slip tomorrow if she needs a summer job I could always use another part time receptionist. I get the feeling Bradley is going to need some time off to mend fences."

"How many times do I have to tell you to stick to what you're good at, finding out what's wrong with people, not marriages or courtships. I've met Beth and I really like her, I'm going to fix this mess of yours one way or another."

"You're distancing yourself, lets get back to the beginning."

"The beginning, really? Alright John, lets explore just why Graydon Creed is out to ruin my life, all because he was a good screw one party in College and he couldn't get over me since. Fast forward, he's now a United States Senator with his own Multinational built from the ground up and finds out I have a daughter who is everything he hates and despises."

"Don't forget you turned down his first job offer to intern unpaid for a visible Mutant, then just Doctor McCoy, now a UN Ambassador."

The slap was met this time with the slamming of cabinets and a glass filled with ice, a slosh of something she could imagine to be vodka as was her pick at the restaurant earlier. Hearing a screech of a stool over the tiles, Marie could imagine John walking up to his wife to apologise.

"Call Andy tomorrow, take your vacation time. Get to know just who our daughter has matured into, right along with our house guest. And for the love of our resale value, remember she's not twelve. It's time to redecorate her room."

"But, but we decorated that together, she loved it."

"Then it's time to relive that experience all over again. Go to bed, I'll be up in a bit."

Frozen in indecision, whether to feign ignorance over her snooping or try and rush back to her room, Marie held her ground and waved to Cayla as she paused at the landing. Looking embarrassed at first, Cayla just kept on walking to lightly run a hand through her house guest's hair in passing without a word said. Waiting just long enough, she wandered down those stairs to try and find something to quench her thirst when she saw John rummaging through the freezer.

"Looking for a midnight snack?" John asked over his shoulder.

"Just a glass of water."

Seemingly ignored as he threw ice into the blender that already had a dollop of yogurt and lots of frozen berries, he turned to her with a smirk as he pressed the blend button that brought an awful racket to the quiet home, pulsing it a few times before pouring it in a glass with a straw.

"Just the thing for jet lag and a sleepless night."

Having a sip, she had to agree it was divine, stopping just short of brain freeze. Putting her glass back down to see him head to the sink to wash some dishes, she felt like she had seen behind the curtain somehow.

"You knew I was there?"

"When someone sits by the vent at the stairs, the AC sounds off. That and there's just this one floorboard that you can't quite hear from upstairs but squeaks against a joist and is just noticeable enough downstairs if you know what to listen for."

"Which you do."

"It's my job to know what to listen for, and I'm sure you already know I'm always on duty. If you ever need an ear, a shoulder, or just someone to sit with and ignore...just give me a call."

That he carried business cards in his robe was surprising, but there on it in a rather sharp typeset was Dr. J. Lee, all the rest of his details on the back. Smiling at the man, she placed it down and enjoyed her smoothie.

"If you'll excuse me, I've a wife to console and apologise to. Sweet dreams."

The kiss on her brow and the hug were both welcome, seeing just why Jubilee had wanted to come home after everything that had happened at the school with Stryker. She could forgive her now for the games that had her say yes to an offer to come out to L.A now, looking forward to a day at the spa and her summer vacation in the fabulous Beverly Hills.

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	14. Chapter 14

Marvel owns the X-men, no profit is to be made by this work.

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Staring at the same face as always in the mirror foggy from his morning shower, Logan wiped back the condensation and ran the tap until it was scalding. Lathering up and marking those places in white foam, he began the ritual all over again shaving the stubborn stubble that always came back just like any other man. Nicking his lip with a wince of the pain that was always there, by the time he wiped it clean there was just smooth skin beneath the bloody stain. Taking a pair of pointed stainless steel scissors he trimmed his chops, wiping his face clean from the muddled water of the sink to pull the drain.

Dabbing just a hint of aftershave, a present from Marie, he stared at himself and thought of all the scars he would carry had it not been for his gift. He thought of the trophies that should be dragged down his back by his goddesses nails, a sacrament for a nights pleasure. The only marks that would be there to tell of the night past would be his teeth at her throat and the bruises from a grip too strong as they tumbled through the sheets to land in a heap on the floor. All he had to show for it all were the memories made one day from the next, and the people he called friends and more.

Clenching his fist and flexing his forearm, claws he knew to be bone but laced in metal burst free with an awful snickt, staring at them and thinking of all the blood that they had spilt right down to his first friend, Rogue...or as she had finally revealed to him, Marie. Staring at them with his reflection cast in the hazy mirror, something about this part of his morning ritual hinted at more as he stared down to the sink thinking how easily he could cleave it in two.

"I'll pay for it..." Logan found himself saying, never knowing just what he owed beyond a world of hurt to so very many.

Thinking of all the kids that had put their trust in him, the boys and girls he had seen grow into men and women, maybe he was finally paying his dues one way or another. He'd been lost for so long just making a living off hurting people to pay for his beer money and the occasional roll in the sheets with women that were always gone in the morning. Words again not his own tugged at him, closing his eyes as he struggled to remember the first time he had heard them in his hazy past.

"Not all those who wander are lost..."

"The Fellowship of the Ring."

Snapping his eyes open to stare at her in the mirror, she leaned as Eve against the frame without a fig leaf of false modesty, just ivory hued hair and dark caramel skin looking luxurious in the early morning.

"I never took you for Tolkien." Ororo greeted.

"Who?" Logan asked, an arched eyebrow meeting her in the mirror as she wrapped her arms about his shoulders.

"Next years reading, the movies were well done too that I might just let you cheat." Ororo purred, breathing in his aftershave and his decidedly intoxicating fresh from the shower scent.

"I get the feelin' I saw it somewhere else once..." Logan confessed in the tight quarters of his bath.

"Do you have any idea where?" Ororo asked full of interest.

As much as she knew of his wanderings looking for his past, always seeming to bring him right back where he was needed, her own life was one full of trials with a childhood spent finding a calm to carry her through one day to the next. Only now was she learning that there could be both the serenity and the rage in that perfect moment before the crash of thunder and the breaking of a storm to express herself.

"Somewhere I owe some folks..." Logan said lowly and full of a gritty growl knowing he'd never have the chance to pay that debt.

Clenching his hands against the vanity and threatening calling his claws again, he felt her light fingers trail down the flesh of his forearms and rest between his knuckles soothing away itch.

"We have a school to teach." Ororo whispered.

"Just another day at the office?" Logan asked staring into her eyes reflected in silver and glass.

"We can only hope." Ororo said lightly, kissing him once before stepping into the shower.

As much as he just wanted to climb back on in with her, he had to pay his debts right down to teaching the youngest kids a bit of Home Ec to make sure they all started the day off on the right foot. It was his one way of making sure bacon and sausage still found its way to the menu, right along with some southern fried grits someone had taught him to make even if she wasn't around to enjoy them.

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Heading back from the country market, Bobby had long since learned to defer to Pete when it came to picking out everything. It was an excuse to get out on those bare roads in the early hours of the day and just let loose and enjoy the scenery. Heading around a bend and seeing a man with his thumb out, Bobby was about ready to blow past him when something about the man had him slow and have Pete roll down his window.

"Where ya headed Mister?" Bobby called from the wheel.

"Just a school up the ways, Xavier's." The man called back.

With a split lip and stubble, the man might look a bit disreputable but it was the pale orange hair and something in his eyes that had Bobby squinting. Sure he'd seen that face somewhere before, he threw the locks to the car open and put the car in park.

"What's your name Mister?" Bobby asked as the man climbed on in, a stink of alcohol still on him along with sweat and something else he wasn't yet familiar with.

"Name's Sean, Sean Cassidy. Got my darling daughter going there." Sean called after climbing on in.

Trying to think of any Cassidy in the school, Bobby left that for some musings on the asphalt as he peeled out and headed on back home. Something about Pete though had him wondering, his buddy always the observant one with the iron trap of a memory and an attention to detail. It was probably why he was making such a good artist, that and why he never fell for the same trick twice in a fight with Logan.

"You're Theresa's father." Pete said, not a question.

"Terri? You know my little girl, shoulda known I wouldn't have seen any farm boys driving a car like this." Sean grinned back through the rearview.

Bobby had to fight to keep the car flowing around a bend, turning to look to Pete who was staring back at whoever Sean was in a different light.

"I know Theresa, I carried her to safety the dawn of one morning through the woodlands not far from here." Pete said low and level.

Feeling his breath taken from him by how suffocating the car had become in that one moment, Bobby spared a glance to the rearview without regard to the road behind him to see a tightness in the eyes of the man there and the first sign of tears. Working his jaw and swallowing hard, Sean reached to place a hand on Pete's shoulder as the first tears fell and just gave a nod that said more in thanks than words alone could convey.

It seemed enough for Pete as he gave a nod back in the rearview, reaching to take Sean's hand in his own for a few pats that promised a meeting again when they weren't in the cramped confines of the Lexus as it sped through the countryside.

"You're Pete ain't ya? Bad as it was to hear about her crush on my man's baby brother, let me tell you some of the stuff she wrote about you. Meeting you face to face now, I get the feelin' if you go and break my baby girl's heart you just might be the first fight I've lost." Sean said laughing with a sniffle, tears rolling down his cheeks even as he was smiling.

"I'll try and not do that sir." Pete said dutifully.

"Good, because there's more'n a few girls out there that would hate you for ruining my rugged good looks right along with her Ma." Sean laughed.

Pulling up to the gate and peeling up the drive, Bobby had one last look between the two feeling he could breath again only to realize he'd missed out on something completely all this time. Throwing the car in park with a jerk and turning to his best bud since one asshole had proved him wrong, Bobby saw Pete just smile and throw him an uncharacteristic wink.

"Where the hell were you going to tell me!?" Bobby cried out thinking they had no secrets between them.

"I thought you had enough worries without knowing." Pete said, excusing himself with the shopping.

"Are you kidding me, do you know the crush Kitty has on you!? Fuck, now I gotta go text Rogue! And you know they're best buds now! This is all your fault!" Bobby shouted, already finding his phone to send the text that would light the fuse.

"What do you mean? Katya?" Pete asked confused.

Exiting with knowing eyes and a pat on Pete's back, Sean took the shopping and headed off to where he remembered the kitchen to be recalling just what a pain in the ass it was to be a boy all over again.

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	15. Chapter 15

Marvel owns the X-men, no profit is to be made by this work.

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Showered, dressed and smiling in passing that the door to Jubilee's room was still open a crack showing her friend nestled under the covers, Marie wandered on down the stairs admiring the home in the daylight with the sun streaming in through the many windows. Pictures of the family hung on the walls, Cayla and John hardly much older than herself in one with a beat up Porsche dotted in primer in one, another of them with a feisty looking toddler outside the famous landmark of Randy's donuts.

The pictures told a story of two people becoming lovers, and lovers becoming man and wife as she paused to admire a wedding photo sitting beside a garter under glass in a hall cabinet. Keepsakes filled it, right down to bronzed baby booties of their 'Jubilation'. Looking to have risen from modest means through their own gifts and hard work, she saw a picture of John standing proudly in front of a new Porsche of glossy black with Cayla and a young Jubilee.

"I still have my first in the garage, too many memories in it to get rid of."

Spinning in shock, she found John there with a twinkle of mischief in his eyes she knew from time to time in another, seeing a bit of the daughter in the father as she had seen the other night with the mother. With a wink and a nod to the kitchen he beckoned her on, following dutifully to be offered a place at the island she had sat at the night prior.

"Sleep well?" John asked, digging through cabinets for flour and other things.

"Yeah." Marie admitted, surprised at just how restful her slumber had been after her midnight snack.

Looking over his shoulder, the smile was earnest and warm, going back to measuring out cups and tablespoons to sift it all until it was a fine powder. A trip to the fridge with a few steps in between had the wet joining the dry, pancake batter freshly made as he warmed a skillet on the gas range.

"Plain, chocolate chip, blueberry, or raspberry? Your choice." John posed, sprinklings some raspberries into the first to be cooked.

"Plain." Marie replied, not wanting to be a bother.

"Mixed it is." John chuckled as he set another on and sprinkled a little of everything in it.

Upstairs she could hear the sound of a shower running, right along with a familiar trample of feet stumbling down the steps just like back at the school. Rubbing the sleep from her eyes as she turned the corner, Jubilee was dressed in what might have once been an ankle length nighty once now just hanging to her knees with a Disney princess on it.

"Roguey!"

The sudden hug caught her off guard, sitting there with the wondrous aroma of breakfast cooking but feeling really welcomed into the Lee household both by the parents earlier and now her friend, returning the embrace feeling the need in it.

"I'm so glad you came!" Jubilee squealed, skipping back a step to look her friend up and down.

"Who could pass up an offer like this?" Marie said, the words easier to believe now that she was actually there.

"I know, I know, it's just for the summer. But trust me, once I take you to Malibu and get you a tan, you'll be sold. Oh my god, we totally gotta blow past Tony Stark's place, you will not believe it even from the road!" Jubilee beamed enthusiastically.

"Just don't get arrested, again..." John remarked, flipping the pancakes by the pan alone with some flair and a wink.

"Ugh, I wasn't arrested, I was asked to leave by his security. There's a difference." Jubilee huffed, heading off to the fridge for a rummage that rewarded her a jug of chocolate milk.

"You were parked out front with binoculars." John argued with a light hearted laugh.

"Wow, make me sound like a stalker much, Dad." Jubilee huffed.

Watching the exchange, a plate found it's way before her complete with cutlery and a fresh topping of custard and berries. Digging in and finding them divine, between mouthfuls she watched father and daughter at the stove bickering over just when to flip hers. Threatened with a spanking by spatula no matter how old she was, the retort of child abuse was thrown back even though Jubilee sat down at the island waiting for her own breakfast.

The running of the shower ended abruptly, announcing the missing Lee fashionably late for breakfast. With the kids fed as it were, she thought, Rogue saw John rush out to the patio to snag a few flowers growing in the garden. Setting a plate with care and placing it down with an impromptu bouquet, he was already on getting a pot of coffee as the first light steps down the stairwell heralded her coming. Fresh from the shower in a robe of gaudy colours, Cayla joined the three at the island with a yawn and a smile as she noticed her breakfast.

"I'm sorry..." Cayla said in apology to her husband, John feigning ignorance as he spared her a look over his shoulder tending the morning brew.

"Whatever for love?" John replied, turning on the pot to sit there waiting with his own plate.

"Oh you just love having an audience don't you." Cayla growled, sighing heavily and diving into her pancakes.

"Should we...?" Marie asked, looking to Jubilee for guidance.

"Were you two fighting again?" Jubilee asked with a roll of her eyes, pushing away her plate.

"I like to think of it as amateur marriage counselling, cutting out the middleman." John teased, looking to his daughter with imploring eyes.

"Was it about me?" Jubilee asked, looking to her parents but catching the suddenly downcast eyes of her friend.

"No." John answered.

"Sort of..." Cayla admitted, "Started off with quitting my job."

"What!?" Jubilee snapped, turning to look to her mother in surprise.

"Your father talked me out of it, I'm just going to take some vacation time instead. That and look into a restraining order." Cayla growled.

"Against who?" Jubilee asked, still puzzled.

"Graydon Creed." Cayla offered.

"Seriously? That loser, Senator Kelly 2.0? I totally schooled that douche at the coffee shop on the whole 'Mutant Debate', just tell him where to go and how to get there mom." Jubilee laughed, waving a hand dismissively and snagging her plate again.

"He's come near you?" Cayla snapped, John closing the distance to take her shoulders in soothing hands.

"Uh, like, just to buy coffee like anyone else. Joint was ready to lynch him till I got into it with him, totally used some stuff Kitty rode hard back at Mutant High." Jubilee explained, looking at her parents curiously.

Feeling bad for suddenly knowing more than her friend did about the sorted past, Marie took her turn to push away her plate feeling no appetite. Excusing herself for a cup of coffee, taking orders as she poured four mugs, she watched the family drama cautiously.

"Okay seriously, for as much as you hang out with Mister Stink Eye your poker face sucks, spill Roguey." Jubilee snorted, turning her attention away from her parents to the one she knew how to really work with.

"I slept with him!" Cayla blurted out.

Thankful she hadn't been holding a cup of coffee just then, Marie looked between mother and daughter as Jubilee stood there in utter silence with her mouth agape. Wrapping his wife up in loving arms, John whispered to her and nuzzled her neck with his nose. Spared an interrogation, she waited for her friend to find her breath and break the silence that had fallen aside from the gurgling of the coffee machine.

"Oh my god I'm not like his love child or something, that would be so many kinds of..." Jubilee blurted out in the same fashion as her mother.

"You're our daughter Jubilation." Both parents cried at once, sharing a laugh as they looked to another with butted heads and kisses.

"Okay, you two, you got some 'splainin' to do when Roguey and me get back from our run. Girl, lets get outta here before Dad tells me he actually was havin' an affair with his secretary." Jubilee snorted.

"Sure, let me just get my stuff." Marie answered, looking apologetically to her hosts as she ran past to the stairs and took them two at a time.

Quickly changing and throwing on her runners, by the time she got down to the front door Jubilee was there with bottles of water and coffee in hand. Wearing sweats herself out of habit, she saw Jubilee dressed for the sunny west coast and likely getting some attention on the way.

"Wow, seriously, shopping today, you and me. You can touch now girl, that means ya can get a tan and flaunt it. Plus you can give Bobby something to keep him waitin', c'mon, time to work off breakfast." Jubilee said, critically eyeing the sweats.

Twisted as she felt after all the drama of breakfast, the idea of sending Bobby a slew of photos of her in some of the same style of jogging wear Jubilee was sporting had a delicious appeal to it. Rushing after her friend who was setting the pace with a vengeance, the Lee Household was proving to be interesting to say the least on her first real day in Beverly Hills.

-=+=–=+=–=+=–=+=-

Sitting behind the desk grading a seemingly never ending pile of exams, Logan looked across to where Ororo was sprawled out on the chesterfield doing her best to decipher the horrible chicken scratches of one of the students from her classes. Tilting his head just enough to read the page, he gave up finding it illegible and chose to enjoy the slight curve of her neckline wishing a few more buttons had been left undone.

"Am I distracting you?" Ororo asked, lolling her head back to look to her lover.

"Nope, got my attention right where it belongs." Logan replied, glancing back down to the page and giving it a B minus.

"Let me see that." Ororo asked, rolling and reaching a hand out for the exam about to join so many more in a pile of completed.

Flicking the page so it fell just shy of her, he watched her slink off the couch and sit cross legged there flipping through the pages. Eyeing each answer attentively, as the last page was flipped she reached a questing hand up. Twirling his grading marker about with a cocked eyebrow, admiring her from on high, he handed it off for her to give one swipe bumping it to a B plus.

"You missed the bonus question." Ororo said, passing off the exam.

Looking to the exam and all the ones he had already graded, with a heavy sigh a resigned look to his fate, he picked up the stack of graded and put it back with all the others. Smiling at his easy mistake, she got back to her own. With a school day behind them and a simple of dinner in town awaiting them, it would be easy to cheat but the kids truly had worked hard and studied as she saw by every insightful answer.

Ten minutes saw them that much deeper into the pile, Logan's phone rattling off into the trash with only his last second snatch and grab saving it from their excuse of lunch compliments of some of the Home Ec students.

"Ah what the hell..." Logan growled, throwing the phone down and getting back to his marking.

Her interest piqued, she threw her legs over the chesterfield to reach for it for a look, giggling at the sight. Dressed in matching jogging tanks and shorts, Jubilee and Rogue were flexing heroically for the photo.

"She's not the young girl you found headed for Alaska, is she?" Ororo asked, borrowing the phone for a quick text.

"None of them are." Logan growled, flipping past all the pages to another bonus question and adjusting the grade.

Reading the reply that came after her text, she smiled and typed away on her borrowed phone under the curious gaze of her beau. Try as he might though, she gave nothing away to the conversation happening. Yet on the next text her smile waned, staring at the screen and finding no strength to send a reply. Noticing the sudden change in her mood, he rolled back the chair and walked around, reclaiming his phone for a read.

"Ah shit..." Logan whispered, the phone rumbling again as he read the latest message.

"Did you know about this?" Logan asked surprisingly soft, kneeling down on his haunches to stare in her downcast eyes.

Shaking her head, she let go of her held breath and sighed heavily, taking the offered phone to read the latest message. Typing a reply and thankful all it took was a few keystrokes to fake a smile, she handed back off to Logan for the next to come. Pulling her close and holding her, the next came after just enough of a delay for him to run a finger down her back and whisper a few words of apology for his rough treatment moments before.

"Says Cayla, whoever the heck that is, is gonna get a restrainin' order." Logan snorted.

"Jubilation's mother, Cayla and John Lee respectively. Goodness, if he knows about her..." Ororo whispered, wrapping Logan up in a tight, wanting embrace.

"Then he knows about the school." Logan said lowly, the threat understood all too well.

"I should tell Emma." Ororo blurted.

"What's her highness gonna do?" Logan asked, pulling back enough to look down at her with a cocksure smirk.

"You don't follow the tabloids do you?" Ororo asked, giggling at just how put out he looked by the question.

"Only what I'm forced ta in the checkout babe, bunch o' ladies in their bikini's that can't hold a candle ta ya, 'n enough gossip ta have me wanna suffer through Terri singin' with a sore throat again." Logan snorted.

Smiling feeling revived after the awful revelation, she leaned in for a kiss that lasted long and eased all the worry out of her shoulders as she splayed herself against him. Letting his hands take her and his arms support her, she looked up with lidded eyes and didn't care what the weather was doing just then.

"I think if you two ever really take the time to get to know another, you might find you have more in common than you think." Ororo confessed, silencing his protest with a kiss.

"Like hell." Logan barked after breaking free of the welcome kiss.

"Hath no fury, not you nor a woman scorned." Ororo smiled, grading forgotten as she curled up with him letting things go as they would.

-=+=–=+=–=+=–=+=-

The bottle hadn't quite made it to where it was supposed to, but eying the sky waiting for the very last rays of the day to die, Alex sat out at the memorial to two men and a lady who had proved mortal after all. Even from here he could hear Sean trying to teach his daughter dearest how to fly out at that same window, laughing hard at the bickering between them as she accused him out right child abuse. Wiping the welcome tears from his eyes and popping the cork for a swig, he raised it to the marker of his baby brother and took a deep breath to help calm the stir of emotions at being home again for the first time in so many years.

"Between you and me, you'd be in a load o' trouble for drinkin' on school grounds out in front o' the kids."

Holding the bottle tenderly between hands and turning to look on up the garden path, he saw a man that had Phys Ed hardass or shop teacher written all over him. Shrugging and having another long swig, the man settled on down beside him and gratefully took it up as it was passed off, staring to the three there with a lingering gaze to the marker for Jean Grey.

"I heard you were the one that killed he.., that killed it." Alex said, catching himself staring at the likeness of a woman he knew as a girl etched in stone.

The bottle was passed back without comment, taking a long drink and staring at the markers again. The family feud was breaking out behind them, both him and his company chuckling at some of the threats and foul language the young Rouke used.

"She gave me the chance, and I didn't disappoint."

Passing off the bottle and feeling the pressure building within, he had to take a long slow breath and let it out between tight lips fighting the urge to shatter the memorials et all. Testaments to mistakes, people would only talk about the good and brush off or forget all the bad, forget the mistakes and tell a history full of cliches and noble purposes forgetting they were ever just fragile, flawed people.

"You're not gonna tell me how much of a good guy my brother was?" Alex laughed bitterly, taking the bottle for a swig.

"Slim? Guy was a prick, hard on for the rules, but end of the day...I'd still take 'im at my back in a fight." Logan laughed, digging out a cigar to light up.

Laughing and passing back the bottle, he had to think it was odd that such an offhand remark could sum up his brother so entirely. The classic boy scout until the blood curse had blinded him, his baby brother had built up an image of him that was little more than a graven idol, an ideal to live by that he himself couldn't bare the burden of seeing. Surprised to find the cigar passed instead of the bottle, he took a smoldering draw of it and thought of those few weeks spent incognito down in Cuba after the shit had hit the fan.

Clutching his ears after seeing his drinking buddy doing the same, it did little as the elder Cassidy taught the younger the finer points and blew past them out into the new night. Just as that day on the dish that was no longer there, there was a joy and exultation to the unfettered freedom of flight in the young girl's voice. Staring up as they banked over the edge of the horizon and flew on, it filled him with a longing for a time that had come and gone, never being able to help his brother learn how to control the destructive power that was their birthright.

"Lotta kids here could use that kind o' helpin' had." Logan said with a nod after the two tearing through the evening sky.

"Emma send you?" Alex asked, laughing and having another swig of the waning bottle.

"Her Highness? Nah, just came lookin' fer a drink and figured I might find a bottle down here next to the dead soldier." Logan grunted, pointing with his cigar to the empty bottle of scotch on the marker.

Staring at it and thinking how apt it all sounded, the last was poured to the grass for the bottle to join the first. Heading back to the school in silence, even though he had a decade on him, as he stared into Logan's eyes he saw an age to them he hadn't expected. Once again accepting the cigar for a puff, as he blew smoke rings he wondered just what his baby brother would have had to say about his behaviour.

"Guess it's about time I start earnin' my keep." Alex mused, catching his companions eye.

"You and me both bub."

-=+=–=+=–=+=–=+=-

Exiting LAX and rubbing her eyes before putting on a favoured pair of now classic Rayban shades, she looked around for the car that was supposed to meet her. Twice she looked to the no smoking signs and looked around to all the people puffing away, taking her back to the old days when air travel was still glamourous and not a hassle.

"Pardon me...mum?"

Maybe across the pond the mistake might be made, but here on the West coast it was the code phrase she had been waiting for, turning with a matronly smile to the still wet behind the ears agent. Young, blonde, and with a hairstyle that had been out of style when Regan was in office, he was just as he had been described. Yet she had noticed a few things that hadn't really fit, a few things that had the hairs on the back of her neck standing on end.

"Douglas my boy, give yer mudder a hug!" Moira cried playing up the role.

Drawing him on into a hug that looked like the awkward hug of any son meeting his over enthusiastic mother, she waited just long enough throwing a few looks around the crowd to see if anyone were watching them with all too much interest. Satisfied it was just the usual lot seeing a smoke or to make a business call, she looked to the young agent again.

Early twenties, weak wrists and the kind of complexion that might as well mark him as out of town, had she not picked him herself she would have been raising hell. With little field work, he was usually found haunting the bowels of Langley listening in on the Chinese, a linguist by trade. But like a handful others she had noticed something there and had tread so very carefully to avoid stepping on toes, a lesson a man she had known years before had learned after his most enthusiastic blunder.

"My car is..." Douglas tried, a finger pressed to his lips with a patronising look.

"Give yer mum some credit me boy, I know just the car my son would be driving." Moira interrupted, stalking off to the favoured ride of her agency, bag in tow.

Settled in and toying around with the stereo, trying to find something loud and awful to play, she pulled a napkin from her purse and took to spitting on it and humiliating the agent across from her with some motherly wipes at phantom dirt all against his protests.

"We're lookin' for my ex, yer Da." Moria announced, whatever shock he had hidden by her show.

"You can't be serious?" Doug gasped, his eyes wide in shock.

In reference to Moira alone, the ex had a different meaning entirely, an asset left to run free to his own devices as most time politics and policy were met at an even ground. To the few that knew though, it wasn't so much as the ex as in ex husband as in an X, for Xavier, a man who to most was known to be dead. Staring at her, a legend in the agency after rising up through the ranks, to be picked out by 'The Old Gal' meant life or death of one's career.

"Yer Auntie and Uncle should be along soon enough, it's been years, lets not keep them waiting shall we?" Moira cooed.

Watching his already pale complexion turn ashen as trembling hands took the wheel, she had taken the liberty to forward everything she had on the event in the park that had her knowing she wasn't right daft. That Doug looked scared did him credit, she had walked among the same giants early on in her career and it still haunted her all the years later. Even still, out of all those she had picked out trusting her gut, Agent Ramsey was the right man for this job as she was sure he'd learn a lot more about himself by the time it was over with.

-=+=–=+=–=+=–=+=-


End file.
